D Orazio & Associates Inc. Has $433,000 Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

D Orazio & Associates Inc. lessened its holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 10.8% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,886 shares of the company’s stock after selling 351 shares during the period. D Orazio & Associates Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $433,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PEP. Norges Bank bought a new position in PepsiCo in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,729,565,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 19,106.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,588,614 shares of the company’s stock worth $688,017,000 after buying an additional 4,564,723 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in PepsiCo in the fourth quarter worth $589,307,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in PepsiCo by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,217,043 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,834,504,000 after purchasing an additional 3,856,193 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in PepsiCo by 106.1% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,514,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $527,034,000 after purchasing an additional 1,809,391 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PEP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $163.00 price objective on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $175.00 to $169.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Dbs Bank lowered shares of PepsiCo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $143.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $170.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $160.69.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PEP opened at $130.85 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $134.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $145.08. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 1-year low of $127.75 and a 1-year high of $180.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $179.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.45.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.01). PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.87% and a net margin of 10.43%. The firm had revenue of $17.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.81 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.61 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $1.4225 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.35%. This is a boost from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.36. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is presently 83.68%.

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.