PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) Shares Sold by Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.

Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lowered its position in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,851 shares of the company’s stock after selling 366 shares during the period. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $1,499,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in PepsiCo by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,371,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,280,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376,133 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 2,775,679 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in PepsiCo by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,497,268 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,170,529,000 after buying an additional 543,558 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of PepsiCo by 18.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of PepsiCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,729,565,000. 73.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on PepsiCo from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group cut PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $171.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $186.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $184.00 to $178.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.88.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

PEP stock opened at $149.27 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $204.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $149.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $157.91. 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 results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $27.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.89 billion. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.43% and a return on equity of 58.87%. PepsiCo’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.78 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The company 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 is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.63%. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 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.