PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators Buys New Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators bought a new stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 91,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,070,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PEP. Norges Bank bought a new stake in PepsiCo in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,018,813,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 120.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,916,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $830,902,000 after purchasing an additional 3,235,726 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 30.0% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 8,641,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,207,230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995,362 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 138,483,870 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,875,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 151.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 2,597,986 shares of the company’s stock worth $364,861,000 after purchasing an additional 1,565,883 shares in the last quarter. 73.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

PEP stock opened at $141.92 on Friday. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 12-month low of $127.60 and a 12-month high of $171.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The business has a 50 day moving average of $152.21 and a 200-day moving average of $152.51. The firm has a market cap of $193.97 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.35.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.06. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 56.61% and a net margin of 9.15%.The business had revenue of $19.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.48 earnings per share. PepsiCo’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.63 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.42. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.2%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on PEP. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on PepsiCo from $169.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on PepsiCo from $191.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on PepsiCo from $154.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Argus raised PepsiCo to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, PepsiCo presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.58.

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.