PepsiCo stock shakes off long-time bear call from Bernstein
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Bernstein threw in the towel on its bearish view on PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) with an upgrade to Market Perform from Underperform.
"Simply put, our thesis was that problems at Pepsi beverages were under-appreciated and would persist, leading PEP overall to disappoint," updated analyst Callum Elliott. 
Elliott said that if the firm was being defensive, it might argue that competitive data for PEP's beverage business have continued to look miserable, both in the US and Internationally with PepsiCo (PEP) consistently losing share. Margins are also said to remain a long way from management's mid-teens target. However, strong pricing-led category growth is what caught the firm offside on its bearish call. Through the pandemic, PepsiCo (PEP) is noted to have delivered the strongest organic growth across mainstream U.S. staples. Other positive factors called out on PEP include the G2DSD shift in 2023 for Gatorade share performance, ongoing growth of Celsius helping with truck utilization rates, ongoing innovation, and improved merchandising at Frito-Lay.
Shares of PepsiCo (PEP) tracked 0.22% higher in premarket trading on Monday.
The Seeking Alpha Quant Rating on PepsiCo fell to Hold from Buy on March 13.