Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP)

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders bought 45,894 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 96% compared to the average volume of 23,469 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on PEP. Argus raised shares of PepsiCo to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Evercore boosted their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $165.00 to $170.00 in a report on Friday, April 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $169.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Thursday. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $143.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.35.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PepsiCo

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cypress Capital Management LLC WY increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Cypress Capital Management LLC WY now owns 838 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. United Bank increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. United Bank now owns 1,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 2.5% in the first quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,673 shares of the company’s stock worth $415,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 3.3% in the first quarter. Wilkerson Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. increased its position in shares of PepsiCo by 3.6% in the first quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 1,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $301,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

PepsiCo Trading Up 1.5%

PEP stock traded up $2.18 on Monday, hitting $146.45. 5,277,112 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,511,177. PepsiCo has a twelve month low of $127.60 and a twelve month high of $171.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The business’s fifty day moving average is $151.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $152.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $200.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.35.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The company reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.06. PepsiCo had a net margin of 9.15% and a return on equity of 56.61%. The firm had revenue of $19.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.48 earnings per share. PepsiCo’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that PepsiCo will post 8.63 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. This is a positive change 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 (DPR) is currently 92.94%.

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.