Graney & King LLC Purchases Shares of 1,108 PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Graney & King LLC bought a new stake in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $168,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in PepsiCo by 2.0% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 4,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $777,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 59.8% during the third quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 4,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,591 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 7.1% in the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,965 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC boosted its stake in PepsiCo by 5.2% during the third quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 2,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $465,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on PEP. HSBC reduced their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $186.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on PepsiCo from $184.00 to $178.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Barclays cut PepsiCo from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $168.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. StockNews.com cut PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, CICC Research reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $169.88.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

PEP stock opened at $145.54 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05. PepsiCo, Inc. has a twelve month low of $141.51 and a twelve month high of $183.41. The business’s fifty day moving average is $149.09 and its 200-day moving average is $158.50. The company has a market cap of $199.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $27.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.89 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.87% and a net margin of 10.43%. The company’s revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.78 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.355 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.99%.

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.