United Bank Sells 101 Shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

United Bank lessened its stake in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,593 shares of the company’s stock after selling 101 shares during the quarter. United Bank’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $242,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in PepsiCo by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,371,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,280,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376,133 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in PepsiCo by 5.1% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of PepsiCo in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,729,565,000. 73.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PEP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays cut PepsiCo from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $168.00 to $156.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $183.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. CICC Research restated a “market perform” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on PepsiCo from $183.00 to $165.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut 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 report on Wednesday, March 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PepsiCo presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.88.

PepsiCo Stock Down 0.3 %

PepsiCo stock opened at $149.27 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $149.25 and a 200 day moving average of $158.03. PepsiCo, Inc. has a one year low of $141.51 and a one year high of $183.41. 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 $204.72 billion, a PE ratio of 21.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued 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 business had revenue of $27.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.89 billion. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.43% and a return on equity of 58.87%. The company’s revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.78 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given 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 dividend yield of 3.63%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is currently 77.99%.

About PepsiCo

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.