Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. Cuts Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. reduced its position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 48.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,867 shares of the company’s stock after selling 20,797 shares during the period. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $3,138,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in PepsiCo by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 59,499,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,356,155,000 after purchasing an additional 1,079,970 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in PepsiCo by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,617,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,912,476,000 after purchasing an additional 958,701 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in PepsiCo by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,902,664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,250,290,000 after purchasing an additional 118,286 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in PepsiCo by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 8,641,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,207,230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995,362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in PepsiCo by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 8,112,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,139,255,000 after purchasing an additional 155,636 shares in the last quarter. 73.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PEP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on PepsiCo from $154.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Citigroup raised their price objective on PepsiCo from $170.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on PepsiCo from $176.00 to $172.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their price target on PepsiCo from $190.00 to $186.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on PepsiCo from $176.00 to $169.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $168.47.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

PepsiCo stock opened at $157.06 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $160.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.10. The company has a market capitalization of $214.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.18, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.40. PepsiCo, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $127.60 and a fifty-two week high of $171.48.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.24 by $0.02. The company 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.96 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were given a $1.4225 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. This represents a $5.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is currently 94.83%.

PepsiCo announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, February 3rd that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 4.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

PepsiCo News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting PepsiCo this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage highlighting likely earnings growth and a potential beat supports expectations for revenue/earnings resilience ahead of the print. PepsiCo (PEP) Earnings Expected to Grow: Should You Buy?
• Positive Sentiment: Marketing and product activity (new campaign for Cheetos with high‑profile partners) can help brand momentum and volume recovery in snacks/beverages. Campaign Trail: Cheetos soundtracks a heist with Megan Thee Stallion, Nickelback
• Positive Sentiment: New product rollout (Dirty Mountain Dew national push) and related beverage innovations may offset some snack weakness if consumer uptake is strong. PepsiCo Balances Dirty Mountain Dew Launch With Snack Pricing And ESG Risks
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS and other brokers expect Q1 results to be largely in‑line, noting modest organic revenue progress but continued focus on North America trends; that tempers both upside and downside near term. PepsiCo expected to report in-line Q1 results amid North America recovery
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest report shows no meaningful short position (data anomaly/zeroes), so short covering is unlikely to be a driver. (No actionable signal.)
• Negative Sentiment: RBC trimmed its price target from $165 to $163 and kept a “sector perform” rating — a modestly bearish signal that may weigh on sentiment relative to peers. RBC trims price target on PepsiCo to $163 from $165, keeps sector perform rating
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple reports that prior snack price hikes led to lost sales and shelf‑space losses have forced PepsiCo to cut snack prices, which could boost volumes but hurt near‑term margins and investor sentiment. PepsiCo Balances Dirty Mountain Dew Launch With Snack Pricing And ESG Risks
• Negative Sentiment: Some outlets and an analyst note flagged a pessimistic medium‑term view on PEP’s share performance, adding to near‑term caution ahead of results. UBS Group Issues Pessimistic Forecast for PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) Stock Price

PepsiCo Company Profile

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.