National Pension Service Increases Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

National Pension Service increased its holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,110,314 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 41,018 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.15% of PepsiCo worth $358,416,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of PepsiCo by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 2,641 shares of the company’s stock valued at $443,000 after purchasing an additional 779 shares during the period. Moser Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Moser Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,469,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC purchased a new position in PepsiCo in the 4th quarter valued at $736,000. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in PepsiCo by 81.3% during the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 8,105 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,357,000 after acquiring an additional 3,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of PepsiCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. 73.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PEP. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $181.00 to $184.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. StockNews.com cut PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Barclays upped their price target on PepsiCo from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of PepsiCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $180.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.42.

PepsiCo Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of PEP traded up $0.28 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $177.69. The company had a trading volume of 773,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,613,230. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $168.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $244.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.52. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 1 year low of $155.83 and a 1 year high of $196.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.86.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $18.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.08 billion. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 57.37%. The company’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.50 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.16 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $1.355 dividend. This is a positive change from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.50%.

PepsiCo Company Profile

PepsiCo, Inc engages in the manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of various beverages and convenient foods worldwide. The company operates through seven segments: Frito-Lay North America; Quaker Foods North America; PepsiCo Beverages North America; Latin America; Europe; Africa, Middle East and South Asia; and Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand and China Region.