PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) Stock Position Lowered by Altfest L J & Co. Inc.

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. lessened its position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 6.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,628 shares of the company’s stock after selling 474 shares during the quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $1,126,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 56,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,514,000 after buying an additional 2,157 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 25,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,360,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares in the last quarter. Spring Capital Management LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Spring Capital Management LLC now owns 23,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,064,000 after buying an additional 714 shares in the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in PepsiCo in the 4th quarter worth approximately $110,000. Finally, Jacobs & Co. CA lifted its position in PepsiCo by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 75,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,825,000 after buying an additional 2,743 shares in 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 research analysts have issued reports on PEP shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $195.00 target price on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of PepsiCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PepsiCo has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.77.

PepsiCo Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ PEP traded up $1.63 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $175.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,413,324 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,886,762. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $167.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $167.95. The stock has a market cap of $240.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.53. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 52 week low of $155.83 and a 52 week high of $196.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.68.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.06. PepsiCo had a net margin of 9.92% and a return on equity of 58.03%. The business had revenue of $27.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.67 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st will be issued a dividend of $1.265 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $5.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 77.02%.

About PepsiCo

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.