Hills Bank & Trust Co Trims Stock Position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Hills Bank & Trust Co lowered its stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,099 shares of the company’s stock after selling 650 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $6,131,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 59.4% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 993,567 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,747,000 after buying an additional 370,122 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in PepsiCo by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,747,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of PepsiCo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $405,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in PepsiCo by 1.4% during the third quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 13,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,243,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC increased its stake in PepsiCo by 34.5% during the fourth quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC now owns 12,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,091,000 after acquiring an additional 3,159 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PEP. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on PepsiCo from $181.00 to $184.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $178.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded PepsiCo from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Argus lowered shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PepsiCo presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $187.42.

PepsiCo Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of PEP traded up $1.93 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $179.99. The stock had a trading volume of 1,638,908 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,586,278. PepsiCo, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $155.83 and a fifty-two week high of $196.88. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $170.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $168.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The firm has a market cap of $247.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.52.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $18.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.08 billion. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 57.37%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.16 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of $1.355 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This is an increase from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. This represents a $5.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.01%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 81.50%.

PepsiCo Company 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.