PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) Trading Up 0.6% After Analyst Upgrade

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) rose 0.6% during trading on Thursday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $178.00 to $181.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. PepsiCo traded as high as $180.63 and last traded at $178.54. Approximately 2,640,200 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 55% from the average daily volume of 5,808,147 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.41.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on PEP. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Monday, February 12th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price objective on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of PepsiCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $183.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PepsiCo currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $187.33.

Institutional Trading of PepsiCo

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in PepsiCo by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,001,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,227,287,000 after purchasing an additional 578,083 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in PepsiCo by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,878,022 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,859,812,000 after purchasing an additional 595,357 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of PepsiCo in the fourth quarter worth $2,686,139,000. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 9,664,323 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,641,389,000 after purchasing an additional 1,470,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,954,951 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,520,909,000 after buying an additional 1,345,065 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

PepsiCo Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a market capitalization of $244.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $169.04 and a 200 day moving average of $167.70.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $18.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.08 billion. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 57.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.50 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.15 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a $1.265 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $5.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 76.09%.

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.