How to Buy PepsiCo Stock Now, Forecast and Dividend Guide
The food and beverage giant PepsiCo didn’t have a great 2020 in terms of stock price performance. With the lockdown firmly in place for a long period, we saw a drastic reduction in consumer spending. Now, vaccines are readily available, and more people are outdoors, so, it’s safe to say that we should be seeing an upswing in this respect.
This implies that now could just be the ideal time to include some PepsiCo stocks in one’s portfolio. This analysis will be checking if this is a good call by scrutinizing PepsiCo’s profile, news, and stock performance in recent times. We will also consider the hard facts available presently to gauge if PepsiCo Stock could be a worthwhile investment now and in the future.
PepsiCo Overview
PepsiCo is a world-renowned food and beverage company with manufacturing and distribution activities in over 200 countries. Food products manufactured include chips, cereals, flavored snacks, and dairy products amongst others. In the beverage department, we see carbonated soft drinks, ready-to-drink tea and coffee, bottled water, and sports drinks. Of the 40 largest packaged goods trademarks in the United States, 9 are owned by PepsiCo.
Following the acquisition of Tropicana Products in 1998, and the Quaker Oats company in 2001, they were further able to diversify production greatly. Serving as a parent company to several brands, 22 of them, including Gatorade, Pepsi, and Lays each generate over $1 billion in revenue.
It’s worthy of note that Nestle is the company’s closest rival on the food scene, while the Coca-Cola company tries to remain a step ahead on the beverage scene. The company benefited from the at-home consumption trend during the pandemic, however, there were negative impacts on PepsiCo share price as well.
PepsiCo Business Model and Share Price
PepsiCo produces, markets, and sells a wide range of consumer-focused food and beverages. However, the company caters to a range of commercial customers instead of selling directly to consumers. Some of these customers include:
- Food and beverage distributors including wholesalers and independent distributors.
- Food service businesses such as cafes, restaurants chains.
- Independent bottlers who purchase branded beverages from the company
- Retailers such as convenience stores, grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and convenience stores amongst others.
In addition to the U.S, PepsiCo’s market extends globally across Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. The closing price of PepsiCo’s share as of September 7, 2021, stands at $154.53.
PepsiCo Stock Historical Price
PepsiCo transferred its stock from the NYSE (NYSE: PEP) to the Nasdaq Select Global Market (NASDAQ: PPE) on December 19, 2017. The company’s market capitalization is currently $213.57 Billion, ranking the company as the world’s 53rd most valuable company by market cap.
PepsiCo stock has risen 14% over the past 12 months as of September 7, 2021 trading at a low of $128.32 and a high of $159.63 within this period. It is a component of some major U.S stock indexes as well including the S&P 500. Stock market history dates back as far as 1973. It is also worthy to note that we have had a PepsiCo stock split on 4 occasions with the first in 1977. However, we focus on PepsiCo stock history in the last 5 years to stay relevant.
The weekly PepsiCo stock chart indicates an upward trend between May 2018 when PepsiCo, Inc shares traded at a low of $97.43 and August 2021 where it achieved an all-time high of $159.63. This indicates that over about 3 and a half years, PepsiCo stock price only rose about 63.84%.
From the chart, there was an upward trend from July 2018 which ended abruptly in March 2020 with PepsiCo stock value dipping from $146.99 in February 2020 to $103.93 in March. This implied a 29.29% fall in the stock price in one short month.
PepsiCo share then instigated a comeback, reaching a high of $158.91 in August 2021, marking a 53.38% increase in about a year and a half. We have seen PepsiCo stock price increase by over half its previous value in this short period and a continuous upward trend seems likely for various reasons that we would get to later in this guide.
Why Invest in PepsiCo Stock?
Before deciding on whether to buy or sell PepsiCo stocks, we should consider some essential fundamentals first.
More Outdoor Activities Could Create Growth for PepsiCo Stock
While at-home consumption continued, a major contributor to the decline in stock price was mainly as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. A significant portion of PepsiCo products are sold in bars, restaurants, stadiums, and other outdoor settings. A stay-at-home policy implied loss of potential sales in public places.
However, with more of the population getting vaccinated by the day, the stock appears to be making an impressive rebound. This no doubt contributed to the surge in stock PepsiCo experienced in 2021. The company would be benefiting a great deal from more people outside. We would see more demand and more sales, indicating a possibility of yet further increase in the stock price in the near future.
The Company is Expanding for the Future
PepsiCo has been on quite the aggressive acquisition quest since 2020. This started with an early January purchase of a major stake in Ethiopian food processing company, Senselet, notable for its Sun Chips brand. This was closely followed by the purchase of Be & Cheery, a major online snack company in China offering a wide range of products ranging from nuts, dried fruits to meat snacks for $705 million.
In 2021, PepsiCo parted with a princely $3.85 billion to purchase Rockstar Energy Beverages and get in on the energy drinks buzz. Just one short month later, in April, PepsiCo signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Bang Energy drinks in the U.S., boosting its newly opened portfolio of energy drinks.
Further acquisitions include a $1.7 billion purchase of the shares of Pioneer Food Group, an African Food and Beverage company producing cereals, food staples, and juices. In September 2020, PepsiCo entered into a deal with Danone to assume the role of exclusively distributing Evian brand bottled water. These purchases are pointers of long-term future plans that would likely result in more profits for both the company and investors.
For PepsiCo Stock, Safe and Steady are the Keywords
PepsiCo stock is a low-volatility one that focuses on returning capital to shareholders. This is a major advantage for long-term holders given the relative safety. Volatility happens rapidly in the market, and as such, low-volatility stocks are a safe option.
A beta value of 0.61 implies that on occasions or massive market outperformance during rallies, investors wouldn’t be rewarded. However, on the flip side, investors would not suffer from huge drawdowns if the market experiences a negative toll.
PepsiCo Stock Dividend Information
The PepsiCo dividend is at $1.075 per share. The average annual dividend yield is at 2.74%.
PepsiCo Stock Forecast and Prediction
Seeing that PepsiCo stock’s fundamentals indicate great promise, let’s take a look at future prospects viewing the financial, technical, and analyst angles.
PepsiCo Stock Analyst Forecast
According to TipRanks, 14 analysts are currently monitoring PepsiCo stock closely. 7 of the analysts recommend buying and the other 7 recommend holding. None recommends selling.
The average price target is $165.46 indicating a slight rise in price which is consistent with a low-volatility stock. The range of forecasts has a low estimate of $140, indicating some form of stability, and a high estimate of $185.
PepsiCo Stock Technical Forecast
Technical analysis gives some solid insight into PepsiCo stock price today. The chart shows stock being supported by an uptrend line since February, indicating a gradual rise in stock price.
PepsiCo stock seems to be facing some minor resistance with the 50, 100, and 200-day moving averages at 154.6, 150.38, and 145.22 respectively. We can see some important support areas; a support zone ranging from 142.11 to 146.07. The second support stands at 128.93 from a horizontal line within the weekly time frame.
There has also been an important resistant area with the zone ranging from 154.56 to 158.92. The zone came about from a combination of vital moving averages in multiple time frames and multiple trend lines. Since the share price is above its 5, 20, and 50 day exponential moving averages, PEP would be seeing some buying pressure and the trend is bullish.
Where to buy PepsiCo Stock?
Opening an account with an online broker and buying PepsiCo stock is not so much of a hassle. The challenge lies in choosing the right broker. In essence, while some brokers are a great choice, some others are a no-no.
To pinpoint the best broker to buy PepsiCo stocks from, we reviewed dozens. Following our scrutiny, we found that ZFX is an excellent option. Operations started in 2018, so we are dealing with a fairly new broker. However, this is not a reflection of their security or services, the FCA regulates the broker after all.
ZFX offers the MT4 platform for trading, the favorite of millions of traders globally due to advanced features for analysis and automatic trading. In addition to trading stocks, ZFX can be used to invest in commodities, indices or forex as well.
How to Buy PepsiCo Stock Easily?
Buying PepsiCo stock from the broker ZFX is a hassle-free process. All you have to do is open an online account following these simple steps:
- Register with ZFX
- Verify your ZFX account
- Make your first deposit
- Buy PepsiCo stock
Here’s a detailed guide to help you along.
1 – Register with ZFX
The first step takes you directly to the ZFX homepage where you navigate to the “Open an account” button. This brings up a registration form that would require you to enter the details shown in the image below.
You would be asked to verify your mobile number via SMS. Once you’ve completed this step, you would be eligible to download the MT4 platform.
You would also be asked to make a deposit. You will use the funds deposited to buy PepsiCo stock.
2 – Make Your First Deposit on ZFX
To make a deposit, simply click on the “Make a deposit” button that will appear immediately after registration. You will need to choose a payment method. If you wish to use a credit card, the image below shows all the details required.
To validate your payment, you would need to enter your credit card information.
3 – Account verification
Verifying your account is the last step before you can go ahead with a PepsiCo Stock purchase. For this step, you would need to send the documents itemized in the image below.
Once these documents have been verified by ZFX customer service, you are all set to buy PepsiCo stock
4 – Buy PepsiCo Stock
Once ZFX has validated your documents, you will then be ready to buy PepsiCo stock.
Bottom Line: Should I Buy PepsiCo Stock?
PepsiCo stock has nearly recovered from the effect of the pandemic and is holding steady at the moment. A continuous gradual increase in stock price is likely with more people going back to public places with vaccination in full swing already.
PepsiCo’s acquisitions also indicate expansion of the company and possible long-term returns for investors. Similarly, we’ve shown in this video that the financial forecasts and technical outlook indicate a gradual bullish future for PepsiCo stock prices. Professional analysts monitoring PepsiCo stock advice buying or holding, confirming that PepsiCo stock could be an attractive investment.
If you would like to hop on the train and include some PepsiCo stock in your portfolio, we recommend the broker ZFX as an excellent choice. Boasting one of the lowest fees on the market, you can save more to invest in PepsiCo stock.