Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Cuts Stake in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,008 shares of the company’s stock after selling 630 shares during the quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $3,803,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Collier Financial acquired a new position in shares of PepsiCo during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC acquired a new position in PepsiCo in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PepsiCo during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of PepsiCo during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Human Investing LLC bought a new position in PepsiCo during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PEP. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on PepsiCo from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on PepsiCo from $193.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $185.00 to $168.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on PepsiCo from $180.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PepsiCo has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.88.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PEP opened at $149.67 on Friday. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 52-week low of $141.51 and a 52-week high of $183.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $149.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $158.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $205.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $27.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.89 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.78 earnings per share. PepsiCo’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.355 dividend. This represents a $5.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. PepsiCo’s payout ratio is 77.99%.

PepsiCo Profile

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.