Portside Wealth Group LLC Purchases 849 Shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 8.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,414 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 849 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $1,711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in PepsiCo by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,371,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,280,471,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376,133 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of PepsiCo by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,079,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,717,069,000 after acquiring an additional 582,254 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in PepsiCo by 18.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,217,043 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,834,504,000 after purchasing an additional 3,856,193 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in PepsiCo during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,729,565,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in PepsiCo by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,403,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,494,300,000 after purchasing an additional 1,306,818 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on PEP shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on PepsiCo from $168.00 to $153.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $171.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on PepsiCo from $158.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. Dbs Bank downgraded PepsiCo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on PepsiCo from $175.00 to $169.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PepsiCo currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $160.69.

PepsiCo Stock Down 0.8%

PEP stock opened at $130.03 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $178.28 billion, a PE ratio of 18.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $136.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $146.06. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 52 week low of $127.75 and a 52 week high of $180.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $17.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.81 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.87% and a net margin of 10.43%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a $1.4225 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This is a boost from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.36. This represents a $5.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio is presently 83.68%.

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.