PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) Shares Up 1.5% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) traded up 1.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $158.00 to $159.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. PepsiCo traded as high as $143.83 and last traded at $143.89. 1,066,803 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 6,093,898 shares. The stock had previously closed at $141.73.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on PEP. Jefferies Financial Group cut PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $171.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $185.00 to $168.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $180.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. CICC Research reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $195.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.24.

Institutional Trading of PepsiCo

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PEP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,371,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,280,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376,133 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in PepsiCo by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,079,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,717,069,000 after purchasing an additional 582,254 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in PepsiCo by 18.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of PepsiCo in the fourth quarter valued at $2,729,565,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,403,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,494,300,000 after buying an additional 1,306,818 shares during the period. 73.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PepsiCo Trading Up 1.2 %

The stock has a market cap of $196.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a 50 day moving average of $148.10 and a 200-day moving average of $154.48.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last released 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 company had revenue of $27.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.89 billion. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.43% and a return on equity of 58.87%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.355 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.78%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.99%.

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.