King Luther Capital Management Corp Reduces Stake in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

King Luther Capital Management Corp cut its stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 836,908 shares of the company’s stock after selling 22,233 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $117,535,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. JCIC Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in PepsiCo in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of PepsiCo in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 107.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 234 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 667.7% during the 3rd quarter. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC now owns 238 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in PepsiCo in the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting PepsiCo

Here are the key news stories impacting PepsiCo this week:

• Positive Sentiment: PepsiCo is accelerating innovation in beverages and snacks — national rollout of a prebiotic soda and R&D into fiber/hydration products could support long‑term revenue mix improvement and higher margin innovation. PepsiCo Bets On Prebiotic Cola And Fiber Snacks To Sustain Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Consumers appear to be responding well to recent snack price cuts, which management says are helping demand — that can support volume recovery even if it compresses near‑term margins. PepsiCo Says Consumers Like Price Cuts on Snacks
• Positive Sentiment: Marketing and brand efforts targeting Gen Z — including a creator‑led chips launch — may help refresh the portfolio and boost penetration in younger cohorts. PepsiCo’s first creator-led product launch reimagines chips for Gen Z
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend durability remains a support for the stock — PepsiCo declared and paid its quarterly dividend, continuing a long streak attractive to income investors (PEP yields ~3.4%). Retirees Are Quietly Accumulating This 8% Dividend Grower
• Neutral Sentiment: Management presented at the CAGNY conference — slides and transcript provide detail on strategy and outlook; useful for validating margin, pricing and innovation commentary but not a near‑term earnings shock. CAGNY conference transcript CAGNY slideshow
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks Research cut EPS estimates across multiple quarters and trimmed FY2027 guidance (FY2027 cut from $9.13 to $8.63), lowering several quarterly EPS forecasts — this is the main near‑term negative catalyst as it reduces street expectations and can weigh on forward multiples. (Zacks releases summarized to investors)

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Evercore lifted their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $152.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $156.00 target price on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Citigroup upped their price target on PepsiCo from $170.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, HSBC raised their target price on PepsiCo from $152.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $167.83.

PepsiCo Trading Up 1.5%

PEP opened at $164.39 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $150.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $147.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.67. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 12 month low of $127.60 and a 12 month high of $171.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.40.

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

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $1.4225 per share. This represents a $5.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 94.83%.

PepsiCo announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, February 3rd that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 4.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.