PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP Shares Bought by Professional Advisory Services Inc.

Professional Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 194,216 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,285 shares during the period. PepsiCo comprises approximately 3.6% of Professional Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Professional Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $27,874,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of PepsiCo during the second quarter worth approximately $2,330,594,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in PepsiCo by 14,420.2% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,890,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $513,726,000 after buying an additional 3,863,893 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 120.7% in 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 in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 112.6% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,040,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $533,452,000 after buying an additional 2,139,847 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 30.0% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 8,641,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,207,230,000 after acquiring an additional 1,995,362 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on PEP shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on PepsiCo from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on PepsiCo from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Evercore raised their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $152.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $170.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.00.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

NASDAQ PEP opened at $150.59 on Wednesday. PepsiCo, Inc. has a twelve month low of $127.60 and a twelve month high of $171.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $158.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.96. The stock has a market cap of $205.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.10, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.39.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.24 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $29.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.96 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 57.92% and a net margin of 8.77%.PepsiCo’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.96 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be paid a $1.4225 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. This represents a $5.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 94.83%.

PepsiCo declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, February 3rd that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 4.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Trending Headlines about PepsiCo

Here are the key news stories impacting PepsiCo this week:

• Positive Sentiment: PepsiCo is expanding AI across its China operations (farming, manufacturing, distribution), a move investors view as a potential efficiency and margin tailwind; the announcement helped lift the stock in premarket trading. PepsiCo (PEP) Stock Gains 1.8% on China AI Expansion Announcement
• Positive Sentiment: The company is using commodity hedges to mitigate geopolitical and input-cost volatility, which should help protect margins if costs spike. PepsiCo mitigates geopolitical pressures by hedging commodities
• Positive Sentiment: New product innovation (e.g., the protein Doritos rollout) supports growth/brand momentum in snacking, a strategic positive for long-term category share. How PepsiCo designed its new protein Doritos to look and taste like the real thing
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple short-interest data entries show a reported jump but list “0 shares” and NaN changes — appears to be erroneous or a data-feed issue, so this is unlikely to meaningfully affect the stock today.
• Neutral Sentiment: PepsiCo Foundation / community engagement programs (SUNY Westchester) are positive PR but are unlikely to move the stock materially near term. SUNY Westchester Community College and the PepsiCo Foundation Highlight Student Pathways to Career Success
• Negative Sentiment: Sector pressure: Coca‑Cola commentary about 2026 margin pressure and pricing normalization raises concerns that beverage peers, including PepsiCo, may face similar headwinds on pricing and volume recovery. Coca-Cola Faces Margin Pressure: Can Pricing Power Hold?
• Negative Sentiment: Consumer backlash risk: reports that PepsiCo Foods may discontinue >20 snack SKUs have sparked negative online reaction; if true, product cuts or supply moves could create short-term brand/headline risk. Major food company might discontinue over 20 snacks: ‘Gonna start a war’

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.