Westover Capital Advisors LLC Increases Position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Westover Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 24.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 13,078 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,567 shares during the quarter. Westover Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $2,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PEP. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in PepsiCo by 5.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,423,845 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,121,736,000 after purchasing an additional 920,032 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in PepsiCo by 3.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,878,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,859,812,000 after purchasing an additional 595,357 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in PepsiCo by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 9,664,323 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,641,389,000 after purchasing an additional 1,470,064 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in PepsiCo by 9.1% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,316,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,239,629,000 after purchasing an additional 608,321 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in PepsiCo by 2.1% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 6,774,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,147,922,000 after purchasing an additional 142,243 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on PEP shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $195.00 price objective on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $180.00 to $195.00 in a report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $199.00 to $209.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $181.00 to $184.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.42.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PEP traded up $0.70 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $175.85. The company had a trading volume of 2,120,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,744,896. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $169.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $168.21. The stock has a market cap of $241.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.43, 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 current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $18.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.08 billion. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 57.37%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of $1.355 per share. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This is a positive change from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 76.09%.

PepsiCo 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.