PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) Shares Climb 2.2% – Should You Buy?

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)’s share price rose 2.2% on Friday. The company traded as high as $145.78 and last traded at $145.44. Approximately 7,832,708 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 5% from the average daily volume of 8,265,915 shares. The stock had previously closed at $142.26.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore decreased their price objective on PepsiCo from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of PepsiCo in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley set a $145.00 price target on shares of PepsiCo in a research report on Friday, October 9th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $145.00 to $133.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $176.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PepsiCo currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $143.28.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $198.20 billion, a PE ratio of 18.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $133.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $145.70.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 7th. The company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $25.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.95 billion. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 53.08% and a net margin of 11.09%. PepsiCo’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at PepsiCo

In other news, CEO Ramon Laguarta sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.13, for a total transaction of $4,053,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 491,645 shares in the company, valued at $66,435,988.85. This trade represents a 5.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robert Pohlad acquired 184,646 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $128.28 per share, for a total transaction of $23,686,388.88. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 433,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,546,394.52. This represents a 74.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of PepsiCo

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of PepsiCo in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,755,509,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of PepsiCo during the second quarter valued at about $1,200,274,000. Corient Private Wealth LP purchased a new stake in PepsiCo in the second quarter valued at approximately $297,116,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in PepsiCo during the 2nd quarter valued at about $487,558,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of PepsiCo by 952.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,715,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $503,121,000 after purchasing an additional 3,362,794 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

PepsiCo Company Profile

PepsiCo, Inc. is a global food and beverage company that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes a broad range of products. Its portfolio includes snacks such as Lay’s, Doritos and Cheetos, as well as beverages including Pepsi, Gatorade and Mountain Dew. The company was formed in 1965 through the merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay. Its products are sold in more than 200 countries and territories through retail, food-service and other distribution channels. PepsiCo is headquartered in Purchase, New York.