Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases Shares of 3,875,487 PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 3,875,487 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $589,307,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 5.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 57,268,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,738,429,000 after buying an additional 2,775,679 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,497,268 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,170,529,000 after buying an additional 543,558 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,217,043 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,834,504,000 after buying an additional 3,856,193 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,013,158 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,130,841,000 after buying an additional 689,383 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 21.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 13,021,316 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,293,049,000 after buying an additional 2,264,445 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

PepsiCo stock opened at $153.88 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $148.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $161.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market cap of $211.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.14, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52. PepsiCo, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $141.51 and a fifty-two week high of $183.41.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $27.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.89 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.87% and a net margin of 10.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.78 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.355 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.52%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is currently 77.99%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on PepsiCo from $183.00 to $165.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays decreased their price objective on PepsiCo from $158.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. HSBC cut their target price on PepsiCo from $186.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. TD Cowen cut their target price on PepsiCo from $183.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, CICC Research reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, PepsiCo currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.47.

PepsiCo Company 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.