Corton Capital Inc. Buys 1,093 Shares of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Corton Capital Inc. grew its holdings in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) by 75.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,550 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,093 shares during the period. Corton Capital Inc.’s holdings in PepsiCo were worth $465,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 95,514.1% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 42,876,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,746,023,000 after purchasing an additional 42,831,405 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 26,720,027 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,827,240,000 after buying an additional 4,629,947 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,637,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,622,579,000 after buying an additional 267,641 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in PepsiCo by 5.1% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,880,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,259,567,000 after buying an additional 872,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in PepsiCo during the fourth quarter worth $2,519,707,000. 71.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PepsiCo Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of PEP stock traded up $2.91 on Monday, reaching $179.18. The company had a trading volume of 1,400,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,626,572. The firm has a market capitalization of $246.66 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.64. PepsiCo, Inc. has a one year low of $160.98 and a one year high of $196.88. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $183.26.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 13th. The company reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.13. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 56.05% and a net margin of 8.76%. The company had revenue of $22.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.86 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 7.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be paid a $1.265 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $5.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.82%. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio is currently 88.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PEP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $193.00 to $195.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of PepsiCo from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, July 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of PepsiCo from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $190.00 to $195.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $178.00 to $180.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $192.00.

PepsiCo Profile

PepsiCo, Inc manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells 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.