ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,130 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,083 shares during the quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $7,769,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PEP. Pensionfund Sabic purchased a new position in PepsiCo in the fourth quarter worth about $2,311,000. Perennial Advisors LLC raised its position in PepsiCo by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Perennial Advisors LLC now owns 4,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Farrell Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. Farrell Financial LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the company’s stock valued at $246,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 29.6% in the 4th quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,618 shares of the company’s stock worth $663,000 after purchasing an additional 1,055 shares during the period. Finally, JGP Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 39,654 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,691,000 after purchasing an additional 1,855 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on PEP. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Friday, January 9th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $164.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $172.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Eight 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.00.

PepsiCo Stock Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:PEP opened at $150.59 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $205.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.39. PepsiCo, Inc. has a twelve month low of $127.60 and a twelve month high of $171.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $149.96.

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

PepsiCo Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th will be issued 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 presently 94.83%.

PepsiCo declared that its board has initiated a share 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 reacquire up to 4.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Stories Impacting 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’

PepsiCo 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.