Lawood & Co. Acquires New Shares in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

Lawood & Co. acquired a new stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 3,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $556,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Novare Capital Management LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Novare Capital Management LLC now owns 61,858 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,878,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 57.7% in the 4th quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 28,182 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,083,000 after acquiring an additional 10,306 shares in the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in PepsiCo by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 786,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,870,000 after acquiring an additional 31,487 shares during the period. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in PepsiCo by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. now owns 79,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,444,000 after acquiring an additional 3,990 shares during the period. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its stake in PepsiCo by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 339,899 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,782,000 after acquiring an additional 11,943 shares during the period. 73.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PepsiCo Price Performance

NASDAQ PEP opened at $149.12 on Friday. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 12 month low of $127.60 and a 12 month high of $171.48. The stock has a market cap of $203.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.41, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.38. The company’s 50 day moving average is $155.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $152.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.06. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 56.61% and a net margin of 9.15%.The business had revenue of $19.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.89 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.48 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.63 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, February 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 4.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.0%. This is a boost from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is presently 89.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $172.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on PepsiCo from $154.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on PepsiCo from $165.00 to $163.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Argus raised PepsiCo to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Evercore increased their price target on PepsiCo from $165.00 to $170.00 in a report on Friday, April 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.37.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo, Inc (NASDAQ: PEP) is a multinational food and beverage company headquartered in Purchase, New York. The company develops, manufactures, markets and sells a broad portfolio of branded food and beverage products, including carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks, bottled water, sports drinks, juices, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, salty snacks, cereals, and other convenient foods. Its leading consumer brands include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, Quaker, Lay’s, Doritos and Cheetos, among others.

Formed through the 1965 merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay, PepsiCo has grown into a global business with integrated manufacturing, distribution and marketing operations.