Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Has $2.45 Million Stock Position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 31.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,124 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,811 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $2,447,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PEP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in PepsiCo by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $259,350,000 after purchasing an additional 870,451 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 41,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,323,000 after acquiring an additional 4,712 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 11.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 350,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,549,000 after purchasing an additional 34,633 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD grew its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,236,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,031,000 after purchasing an additional 61,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC raised its position in PepsiCo by 147.6% in the 4th quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 14,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,229,000 after purchasing an additional 8,759 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. CICC Research reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $171.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $171.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $185.00 to $168.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.88.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

Shares of PEP opened at $151.37 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $149.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $157.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.82. PepsiCo, Inc. has a twelve month low of $141.51 and a twelve month high of $183.41. The firm has a market cap of $207.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.49.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $27.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.89 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.87% and a net margin of 10.43%. The company’s revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.78 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.355 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.58%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.99%.

PepsiCo Profile

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.