J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Purchases 21,718 Shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP - Free Report) by 93.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,915 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 21,718 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.'s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $6,735,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in PepsiCo in the fourth quarter worth $2,729,565,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 19,106.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,588,614 shares of the company's stock valued at $688,017,000 after acquiring an additional 4,564,723 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 106.1% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,514,965 shares of the company's stock valued at $527,034,000 after purchasing an additional 1,809,391 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in PepsiCo in the fourth quarter valued at about $221,297,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,376,133 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.07% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PEP. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on PepsiCo from $153.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. Dbs Bank cut PepsiCo from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Evercore ISI set a $140.00 price target on PepsiCo in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays increased their price target on PepsiCo from $132.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on PepsiCo from $140.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $158.73.

PepsiCo Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of PEP stock traded up $3.94 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $145.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,552,488 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,240,944. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $132.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $141.04. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 52 week low of $127.60 and a 52 week high of $180.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.78. The company has a market cap of $199.40 billion, a PE ratio of 26.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.45.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.09. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 57.81% and a net margin of 8.23%. The business had revenue of $22.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.28 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were issued a dividend of $1.4225 per share. This is a positive change from PepsiCo's previous quarterly dividend of $1.36. This represents a $5.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. PepsiCo's payout ratio is currently 103.64%.

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.