Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Cuts Stock Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp cut its stake in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 863,940 shares of the company’s stock after selling 30,385 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp owned about 0.06% of PepsiCo worth $131,371,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in PepsiCo by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,371,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,280,471,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376,133 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew 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 valued at $9,738,429,000 after acquiring an additional 2,775,679 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,497,268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,170,529,000 after acquiring an additional 543,558 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in PepsiCo by 18.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,856,193 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in PepsiCo by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 14,013,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,130,841,000 after purchasing an additional 689,383 shares during the period. 73.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on PEP shares. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $171.00 to $170.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $183.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $195.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on PepsiCo from $185.00 to $168.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on PepsiCo from $193.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PepsiCo presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.88.

PepsiCo Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of PEP opened at $146.45 on Tuesday. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 1-year low of $141.51 and a 1-year high of $183.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $200.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $149.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.73.

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

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.70%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is presently 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.