5 Dividend Stocks to Buy Now Before Recession Begins

4. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Dividend Yield as of August 3: 2.62%

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is one of the world’s largest beverage companies. It deals in the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of its products. Since the beginning of the year, the stock is up 1.45% while it delivered a return of 12.01% in the last year, as of the close of August 2.

In Q2 2022, PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) reported an operating cash flow of over $2 billion. The company generated over $1 billion in free cash flow, up from $696 million in the previous quarter. Dividend payments accounted for $2.9 billion of its shareholder returns during the quarter. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) has been steadily raising its dividends for the past 49 years. The company pays a quarterly dividend of $1.15 per share. The stock’s dividend yield was recorded at 2.62% on August 3.

In August, Morgan Stanley raised its price target on PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) to $198 with an Overweight rating on the shares, highlighting the company’s distribution agreement with Celsius.

At the end of Q1 2022, 62 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP), up from 60 in the previous quarter. These stakes hold a collective value of over $4.8 billion.

ClearBridge Investments mentioned PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in its Q4, 2021 investor letter. Here is what the firm said:

“The pandemic created opportunities for us to be more aggressive in a variety of areas of the market. We were opportunistic throughout the year. After a strong year for equities, we sought to bolster more defensive areas of the portfolio and added to PepsiCo, increasing our exposure to a high-quality and stable name.”