What Makes PepsiCo (PEP) an Investment Bet in a Volatile Market?

Matrix Asset Advisors, an asset management company, released its Q1 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. After two years of gains exceeding 20%, the stock market rally ended in February when the president intensified his tariff threats. Technology and Growth stocks drove the stock market’s first-quarter decline. Matrix’s portfolios performed well during a challenging quarter. The Matrix Dividend Income portfolio recorded a slight positive return, while the LCV portfolio, which is more exposed to Technology, experienced a modest decline. Matrix’s Large Cap Value Portfolio (LCV) was down low single digits in Q1, surpassing the S&P 500® Index’s loss but behind the Russell 1000 Value’s 2.14% gain.  Matrix Dividend Income (MDI) started the year positively, growing low single digits in Q1, ahead of both the S&P 500®’s loss and the Russell 1000® Value Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Matrix Asset Advisors highlighted stocks such as PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP). PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is an American multinational company that manufactures, markets, and distributes various beverages and convenient foods. The one-month return of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) was -3.11%, and its shares lost 23.24% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 27, 2025, PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) stock closed at $131.37 per share with a market capitalization of $180.12 billion.

Matrix Asset Advisors stated the following regarding PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

The market’s volatility during the quarter gave us the opportunity to be more active than usual with portfolio buys and sells. On the buy side, we added two new positions to the portfolio, Generac and PepsiCo. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is a leading snack and beverage company. We know the company well, having owned it several times, buying during pullbacks, and selling when we thought the stock was fully priced. The current opportunity to buy the shares for our LCV portfolio is the result of a deceleration in the company’s top-line growth and concerns about the potential impact on demand for the company’s core products because of the new weight loss drugs and the opposition to soda and processed foods by the new secretary of health and human services. This well-managed company, with a history of steady earnings and dividend growth, is a good investment in what we expect to be a volatile stock market. At its current price, the dividend yield is 3.6%.

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 71 hedge fund portfolios held PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) at the end of the first quarter, which was 69 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.

In another article, we covered PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) and shared the list of best dividend stocks with high yields. Mar Vista U.S. Quality Select Strategy also commented on PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in its Q1 2025 investor letter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.