Hexagon Capital Partners LLC Increases Stock Holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 6.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,612 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $691,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PEP. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of PepsiCo during the fourth quarter worth about $2,729,565,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 19,106.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,588,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $688,017,000 after purchasing an additional 4,564,723 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 106.1% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,514,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $527,034,000 after purchasing an additional 1,809,391 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in PepsiCo during the 4th quarter worth $221,297,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,371,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,280,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376,133 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on PEP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $158.00 to $159.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $168.00 to $153.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Barclays lowered their price target on PepsiCo from $143.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $171.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on PepsiCo from $170.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $159.75.

PepsiCo Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:PEP opened at $135.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.13. The firm has a market cap of $185.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.94, a PEG ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $131.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $142.17. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 12-month low of $127.60 and a 12-month high of $180.91.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.49 by ($0.01). PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.28% and a net margin of 10.24%. The company had revenue of $17.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.81 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

PepsiCo Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were paid a dividend of $1.4225 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 6th. This is a positive change from PepsiCo’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.36. This represents a $5.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.20%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.68%.

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.