Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Grows Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

Key Points

• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its PepsiCo stake by 554.8% in the fourth quarter, ending with 460,460 shares valued at about $66.1 million.
• Several other institutional investors also increased holdings, and institutions now own 73.07% of PepsiCo’s shares overall.
• PepsiCo recently beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, and it raised its dividend to $1.48 per share quarterly, implying a 4.0% yield; the company also has a $10 billion buyback authorization in place.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP - Free Report) by 554.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 460,460 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 390,136 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' holdings in PepsiCo were worth $66,092,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 120.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,916,417 shares of the company's stock valued at $830,902,000 after buying an additional 3,235,726 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 30.0% in the third quarter. Amundi now owns 8,641,588 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,207,230,000 after buying an additional 1,995,362 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 138,483,870 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,875,205,000 after buying an additional 1,612,652 shares in the last quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 151.7% in the third quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 2,597,986 shares of the company's stock valued at $364,861,000 after buying an additional 1,565,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 406.0% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,789,959 shares of the company's stock valued at $256,895,000 after buying an additional 1,436,216 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on PEP shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on PepsiCo from $190.00 to $186.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on PepsiCo from $172.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on PepsiCo from $170.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on PepsiCo from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of PepsiCo in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, PepsiCo presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $170.37.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

NASDAQ PEP opened at $149.12 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $155.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $152.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.90. PepsiCo, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $127.60 and a fifty-two week high of $171.48.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $19.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.89 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 56.61% and a net margin of 9.15%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.48 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.63 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, February 3rd that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 4.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. This is an increase from PepsiCo's previous quarterly dividend of $1.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. PepsiCo's dividend payout ratio is presently 89.32%.

PepsiCo Profile

PepsiCo, Inc NASDAQ: PEP is a multinational food and beverage company headquartered in Purchase, New York. The company develops, manufactures, markets and sells a broad portfolio of branded food and beverage products, including carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks, bottled water, sports drinks, juices, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, salty snacks, cereals, and other convenient foods. Its leading consumer brands include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, Quaker, Lay's, Doritos and Cheetos, among others.

Formed through the 1965 merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay, PepsiCo has grown into a global business with integrated manufacturing, distribution and marketing operations.

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