Abacus Planning Group Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Abacus Planning Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,720 shares of the company’s stock after selling 133 shares during the period. Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $870,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 17,113.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,220,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $547,626,000 after acquiring an additional 3,201,676 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in PepsiCo by 5.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 57,268,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,738,429,000 after acquiring an additional 2,775,679 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in PepsiCo by 21.1% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 13,021,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,293,049,000 after acquiring an additional 2,264,445 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in PepsiCo by 211.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,345,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $398,847,000 after acquiring an additional 1,592,343 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in PepsiCo by 360.0% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,697,742 shares of the company’s stock valued at $258,158,000 after acquiring an additional 1,328,672 shares during the last quarter. 73.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $193.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $180.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $183.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.47.

PepsiCo Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of PEP opened at $145.81 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $149.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $162.60. PepsiCo, Inc. has a twelve month low of $141.51 and a twelve month high of $183.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.98, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.54.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.02. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.43% and a return on equity of 58.87%. The company had revenue of $27.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.355 dividend. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.99%.

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.