The largest food company of the world, Nestle SA, reported 2010 sales growth that surpassed analysts’ estimates as consumers bought more Nespresso coffee capsules, and foretells of higher revenue and margins this year.

Sales in the firm went up 6.2 percent excluding acquisitions, disposals and currency shifts, the company based in Vevey, Switzerland said today. The result is comparable with the 5.4 percent average estimate of eight analysts. Nestle said that it is confident that so-called organic revenue will rise five percent to six percent in 2011.

Profit of the firm in the last year more than tripled, increased by a one-time gain from selling a stake in Alcon Inc, the company also reported.

It is clearly a better-than-expected result when many had expected final quarter numbers to go down, stated Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets who has given a ‘buy’ rating on the stock. The future looks reassuring.

The firm further stated that it expects to improve its operating margin excluding currency fluctuations this year, meeting its long-term goal.

Nestle had never announced a new buyback program in the statement. An analyst at ING Financial Markets, Marco Gulpers, previously estimated that Nestle may announce a ten billion-franc buyback, while an analyst at Bank Vontobel, Jean-Philippe Bertschy stated that the food company might repurchase as much as twenty billion francs of additional stock. Nestle said it will raise its dividend sixteen percent to 1.85 francs a share.

Net income of the company went up to 34.2 billion Swiss francs ($35.7 billion) from 10.4 billion francs seen in 2009.

The maker of Lean Cuisine meals and KitKat bars indicated that price increases boosted sales growth by 1.6 percentage points. Nestle gets about seventy five percent of revenue from thirty brands that have sales exceeding one billion francs, giving it more power than smaller rivals to pass higher commodity costs on to consumers, as reported by ING’s Marco Gulpers.