By Bill Gunderson

At the supermarket here in San Diego, there is now a cooler full of sleek, old-style bottles filled with Mexican Coca-Cola.

I like the Mexican version a lot better than the American version. There is just something about an ice-cold glass bottle. In addition, the Mexican Coke uses a less-refined sugar than American Coke, and this makes for a sweeter, bolder taste.

Drinking a Mexican Coke is like going back 40 to 50 years when the American version came in similar bottles and one needed a bottle opener to pop the lid. That was back when American Coca-Cola's (KO) stock was an aggressive growth stock and the Mexican version, Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB de CV (FMX), did not exist.

Since then, Coca-Cola has matured and growth has slowed down considerably for this Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) member. The Atlanta company is now a $169 billion firm, while the Mexican version is just $35 billion.

While I like the taste of Mexico-produced Coca-Cola better than American Coca-Cola, which is the better stock?

Let's begin with the performance of the two stocks over the years:

As you can see, it is virtually no contest. Or should I say no concurso? The Mexican middle-weight has it all over the American heavyweight. Compare the one-, two-, five-, and 10-year performance of these two stocks. $10,000 would have grown to almost $95,000 in pesos in FMX, while the American version delivered a much flatter $21,790.

I know, you have all heard the expression: "past performance is no guarantee of future results," but those are some significant numbers. If I am an odds maker on this battle, based on performance the favorite would seem clear.

But what about valuation? I don't like to buy stocks based on performance only. I like all three legs of the stool to be in place: performance, value and a good stock chart. How does the valuation weigh-in stack up?

Fomento's shares are a bit more expensive than its U. S. counterpart, but then investors have to pay up a bit for superior growth. Fomento's income is expected to grow by 14.3% per year over the next five years while Coke is looking at just 8.2% growth. In fact, the PEG ratio is much more favorable on the Mexican middle-weight contender.

Advantage: FMX.

While the food and beverage sector is not exactly one of the top-ranked sectors in the market right now, I like the fact that Fomento also owns convenience stores. This gives it exposure to the more highly rated consumer and retail sectors.

Lastly, let's compare the charts of the two stocks:

I prefer to buy stocks in uptrends. Even though I have owned FMX for a while, I would have no problem buying this stock today.

In fact, when I compare Fomento against the other 3,185 stocks that I follow, it comes in at number 34. Not bad for a large-cap.

I think I will pop open an icy cold Mexican Coca-Cola and ponder the fiscal cliff.

At the time of publication the author had a position in FMX.

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