Half-century of rising dividends

Article Excerpt

PEPSICO INC. $169 is a hold. The soft drink and snack foods maker (Nasdaq symbol PEP; Conservative-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $236.6 billion; Dividend yield: 2.7%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.pepsico.com) is raising your quarterly dividend by 7.0%. Starting with the June 2022 payment, investors will receive $1.15 a share instead of $1.075. Your new annual rate of $4.60 yields 2.7%. The company has increased that amount annually for the past 50 years. The company expects its sales for all of 2022 to improve 8% compared to its earlier forecast of 6% growth. However, due to rising costs for ingredients, packaging, labour and fuel, it cut its previous earnings forecast for the year by about 1% to $6.63 a share. The stock trades at a somewhat high 25.5 times that estimate. The current shutdown of its operations in Russia and Ukraine could also force the company to write off those assets. In 2021, the two embattled countries accounted…