Moody National Bank Trust Division Trims Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. $PEP

Moody National Bank Trust Division lowered its stake in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 21.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 15,434 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,126 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Division’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $2,215,000 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. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of PepsiCo in the second quarter valued at $2,330,594,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in PepsiCo by 14,420.2% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,890,688 shares of the company’s stock worth $513,726,000 after acquiring an additional 3,863,893 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in PepsiCo by 120.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,916,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $830,902,000 after acquiring an additional 3,235,726 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in PepsiCo by 112.6% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,040,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $533,452,000 after acquiring an additional 2,139,847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in PepsiCo by 30.0% during the third quarter. Amundi now owns 8,641,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,207,230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995,362 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

PepsiCo Price Performance

Shares of PEP opened at $150.59 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.85. PepsiCo, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $127.60 and a fifty-two week high of $171.48. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $158.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $149.96. The company has a market capitalization of $205.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.39.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.24 by $0.02. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 57.92% and a net margin of 8.77%.The company had revenue of $29.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.96 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.96 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $1.4225 per share. This represents a $5.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 6th. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio is currently 94.83%.

PepsiCo announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, February 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 4.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting PepsiCo

Here are the key news stories impacting PepsiCo this week:

• Positive Sentiment: PepsiCo is expanding AI across its China operations (farming, manufacturing, distribution), a move investors view as a potential efficiency and margin tailwind; the announcement helped lift the stock in premarket trading. PepsiCo (PEP) Stock Gains 1.8% on China AI Expansion Announcement
• Positive Sentiment: The company is using commodity hedges to mitigate geopolitical and input-cost volatility, which should help protect margins if costs spike. PepsiCo mitigates geopolitical pressures by hedging commodities
• Positive Sentiment: New product innovation (e.g., the protein Doritos rollout) supports growth/brand momentum in snacking, a strategic positive for long-term category share. How PepsiCo designed its new protein Doritos to look and taste like the real thing
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple short-interest data entries show a reported jump but list “0 shares” and NaN changes — appears to be erroneous or a data-feed issue, so this is unlikely to meaningfully affect the stock today.
• Neutral Sentiment: PepsiCo Foundation / community engagement programs (SUNY Westchester) are positive PR but are unlikely to move the stock materially near term. SUNY Westchester Community College and the PepsiCo Foundation Highlight Student Pathways to Career Success
• Negative Sentiment: Sector pressure: Coca?Cola commentary about 2026 margin pressure and pricing normalization raises concerns that beverage peers, including PepsiCo, may face similar headwinds on pricing and volume recovery. Coca-Cola Faces Margin Pressure: Can Pricing Power Hold?
• Negative Sentiment: Consumer backlash risk: reports that PepsiCo Foods may discontinue >20 snack SKUs have sparked negative online reaction; if true, product cuts or supply moves could create short-term brand/headline risk. Major food company might discontinue over 20 snacks: ‘Gonna start a war’

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of PepsiCo in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $170.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on PepsiCo from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.00.

About PepsiCo

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.