Vontobel Holding Ltd. Buys 321,317 Shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 10.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,335,418 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 321,317 shares during the period. PepsiCo accounts for 1.8% of Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $500,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of PepsiCo by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 630,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,598,000 after buying an additional 21,859 shares during the period. Ossiam boosted its stake in PepsiCo by 138.9% during the 4th quarter. Ossiam now owns 73,604 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,192,000 after acquiring an additional 42,793 shares during the last quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its holdings in PepsiCo by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 124,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,977,000 after purchasing an additional 13,461 shares during the period. Hutner Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in PepsiCo by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Hutner Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,783 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,178,000 after purchasing an additional 6,865 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of PepsiCo during the fourth quarter worth $47,899,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on PEP. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $171.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. UBS Group dropped their price target on PepsiCo from $175.00 to $169.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on PepsiCo from $158.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $170.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $143.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PepsiCo currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $159.75.

PepsiCo Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:PEP opened at $132.04 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $131.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $142.63. The company has a market capitalization of $181.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.83. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 52-week low of $127.60 and a 52-week high of $180.91.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by ($0.01). PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.24% and a return on equity of 58.28%. The business had revenue of $17.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.81 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were given a dividend of $1.4225 per share. This is a boost from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.36. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.31%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.