PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) Plans $1.36 Quarterly Dividend

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of 1.355 per share on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%.

PepsiCo has raised its dividend by an average of 7.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 35 consecutive years. PepsiCo has a payout ratio of 59.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect PepsiCo to earn $8.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.42 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 63.7%.

PepsiCo Stock Up 1.5 %

PEP traded up $2.17 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $145.66. The stock had a trading volume of 9,247,016 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,982,719. The company has a market capitalization of $199.84 billion, a PE ratio of 21.48, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.54. PepsiCo has a twelve month low of $141.51 and a twelve month high of $183.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $152.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $164.53.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.02. PepsiCo had a net margin of 10.18% and a return on equity of 57.32%. The company had revenue of $27.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.89 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.78 earnings per share. PepsiCo’s revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that PepsiCo will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $183.00 to $158.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. BNP Paribas decreased their target price on shares of PepsiCo from $162.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $180.00 to $160.00 in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $183.00 to $165.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PepsiCo presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.76.

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.