Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC reduced its position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 30.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 52,415 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,052 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $8,902,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 95,514.1% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 42,876,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,746,023,000 after buying an additional 42,831,405 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 26,720,027 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,827,240,000 after buying an additional 4,629,947 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of PepsiCo by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,423,845 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,121,736,000 after purchasing an additional 920,032 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 3.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,878,022 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,859,812,000 after acquiring an additional 595,357 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of PepsiCo during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,519,707,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on PEP shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of PepsiCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Argus downgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $181.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on PepsiCo from $199.00 to $209.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $186.92.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PEP traded up $0.75 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $173.02. 2,691,678 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,681,371. The stock has a market capitalization of $237.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $168.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.68. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 1-year low of $155.83 and a 1-year high of $196.88.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.03% and a net margin of 9.92%. The firm had revenue of $27.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.67 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $1.265 per share. This represents a $5.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 77.02%.

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.