Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Acquires 969 Shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its holdings in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 25,126 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 969 shares during the period. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $3,821,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PEP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $259,350,000 after acquiring an additional 870,451 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 41,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,323,000 after purchasing an additional 4,712 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $59,549,000 after purchasing an additional 34,633 shares in the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in PepsiCo by 19.3% in the third quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,493,000 after buying an additional 5,220 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its holdings in PepsiCo by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,236,788 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,031,000 after buying an additional 61,541 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on PEP. Barclays downgraded shares of PepsiCo from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $168.00 to $156.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on PepsiCo from $184.00 to $178.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. HSBC decreased their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $186.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com downgraded PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $183.00 to $165.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.88.

PepsiCo Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ PEP opened at $145.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $199.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $149.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $158.50. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $141.51 and a 52-week high of $183.41.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $27.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.89 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.87% and a net margin of 10.43%. PepsiCo’s quarterly revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. Equities analysts predict that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.355 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.72%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is currently 77.99%.

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.