J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Decreases Stake in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lowered its position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 7.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,010 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,040 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $6,747,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PEP. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of PepsiCo during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,018,813,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 120.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,916,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $830,902,000 after buying an additional 3,235,726 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 30.0% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 8,641,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,207,230,000 after buying an additional 1,995,362 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 138,483,870 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,875,205,000 after buying an additional 1,612,652 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 151.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 2,597,986 shares of the company’s stock worth $364,861,000 after buying an additional 1,565,883 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $172.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $165.00 to $163.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $191.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.58.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

Shares of PepsiCo stock opened at $141.92 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $152.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $152.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $193.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.35. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 12 month low of $127.60 and a 12 month high of $171.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

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

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.42. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is currently 89.32%.

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.