A Trio Of PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) Indicators To Watch

In the financial blogosphere, there are plenty of tools for PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) investors to watch, but it is key to take note of a stock’s short sellers. A couple indicators we can use are: (a) the fraction of a stock’s float that bears are currently selling, in addition to (b) the change in short selling activity.

Heightened short selling usually indicates what you’d think: Wall Street has grown less bullish on a company. Short selling that’s too high, however, sometimes has a bullish effect on stock price, as the shorts can be forced to buy their positions.

Here at Insider Monkey, it’s no secret that we track hedgies’ sentiment, but it’s also crucial to pair this information with aggregate short sale information. A few, large investors might disclose that they’re short on a company, but it’s not an SEC requirement. Nonetheless, many retail investors may want to stay away from heavily shorted equities with above-average hedge fund interest, while others may prefer short-squeeze candidates. For readers looking for a market-beating piggybacking strategy, discover the details of our premium strategy.

Without further ado, let’s take a peek at the latest data pertaining to PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP).

Studying the most recent FINRA short interest data, which is reported twice monthly, we can discover that PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) sports a short interest of 0.80% of float, a slight drop from one month earlier. With a total float of 1.54B shares, this is a short ratio of 2.50.

It is also beneficial to monitor hedge fund holdings from their 13F filings. When analyzing the funds we track, Yacktman Asset Management, managed by Donald Yacktman, holds the largest position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP). Yacktman Asset Management has a $1.8231 billion position in the stock, comprising 9.3% of its 13F portfolio. The 2nd biggest stake is held by Trian Partners, managed by Nelson Peltz, which held a $951.8 million position; 20.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that hold long positions include Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Also, insider buying is best served when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last half-year time frame, PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) has experienced 1 unique insiders buying, and 6 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

These three figures–short interest info, hedge fund holdings and insiders’ behavior–are something every investor should be aware of. Though it’s hard to discover a practical strategy from short sale information, hedge fund and insider sentiment provide lots of market beating opportunities if you know where to look.