36.1%

7.2

*****

Monsanto (NYSE: MON)

20.5%

3.6

****

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and CAPS as of July 9. TTM = trailing 12 months.

While these aren't meant to be formal recommendations, they're a great place to kick off some more research. In fact, why don't we start by taking a closer look at PepsiCo.

The anatomy of a growth stock
Liquid refreshment beverages -- or LRBs, as the acronym-happy PepsiCo refers to them -- have been the core driver of PepsiCo's success over the years. For the uninitiated, LRBs refer to beverages other than milk products, alcohol, tap water, and coffees and teas. In other words, we're talking about soda, bottled water, juices, and sports and energy drinks.

While the overall consumption of beverages in the U.S. grew only about 1% between 1999 and 2007, those LRBs stormed the market like Hannah Montana stomping all over the teeny-bop world, and posted growth in excess of twice the overall market rate. This created a great environment for Pepsi, as well as competitors like Coke (NYSE: KO), Dr Pepper , and smaller upstarts like Jones Soda (Nasdaq: JSDA).

More recently though, growth has been harder to come by, particularly in the troubled area of carbonated soft drinks (or CSDs, if you dig those acronyms). That means that PepsiCo has been focusing on fortifying its core Pepsi brand, while looking for growth in other areas such as snacks (Frito-Lay and Quaker), sports drinks (Gatorade), enhanced water (Propel, Aquafina Flavor Splash, and SoBe Lifewater), energy drinks (AMP), and other noncarbonated beverages, such as Tropicana juices, Naked Juice, and Lipton teas.

And of course, with international investing such a hot topic, I'd be remiss to skip over the fact that PepsiCo has seen strong overseas growth -- particularly from its operations in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

CAPS or bust
I've rated PepsiCo's stock an outperformer in CAPS; I'm only one of the 3,500-plus fans of the stock in the community. One of CAPS' top-performing members, hondo928, gave the stock a thumbs-up last fall, saying:

Cheap as dirt at this price, yes the P/E isn't great but they are very safe, and have some of the best management in the whole world, Coke trades at a higher premium, and less has a less diversified product offering, something that Pepsi has an advantage with. They are more than just a soda company.