Equitable Holdings Inc. Takes $8.17 Million Position in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

Equitable Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 60,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,168,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PEP. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in PepsiCo by 14,857.8% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 49,252,907 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,068,777,000 after purchasing an additional 48,923,629 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of PepsiCo in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,018,813,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of PepsiCo in the second quarter valued at about $2,755,509,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of PepsiCo during the second quarter worth about $1,200,274,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LP purchased a new position in shares of PepsiCo during the second quarter worth about $297,116,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PEP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore set a $150.00 price objective on PepsiCo in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Bank of America lowered their target price on PepsiCo from $173.00 to $164.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on PepsiCo from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on PepsiCo from $162.00 to $152.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price target on PepsiCo from $130.00 to $132.00 in a report on Monday, May 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at PepsiCo

In related news, EVP David Flavell sold 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.54, for a total transaction of $404,666.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 74,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,441,080.50. This represents a 3.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

PepsiCo Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ PEP opened at $140.34 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $191.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.35. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 52-week low of $133.73 and a 52-week high of $171.48. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $139.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $149.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 9th. The company reported $2.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.01. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 54.63% and a net margin of 10.78%.The company had revenue of $24.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.95 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.92 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. PepsiCo has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.550-8.710 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.57 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 77.59%.

About PepsiCo

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.