Billionaire Ray Dalio’s 5 Long-Term Stock Picks

3. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

Bridgewater Associates’ Stake Value: $656.55 million

Percentage of Bridgewater Associates’ 13F Portfolio: 3.32%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 72

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation that manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells various beverages and convenient foods worldwide. With a business model that encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market, it leads as one of the best consumer staples company in the world. Ray Dalio began investing in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) during the fourth quarter of 2010 when his hedge fund purchased shares worth $16.4 million in the company. At the end of Q3 2022, Bridgewater Associates owned over 4 million PEP shares worth over $656.5 million, after increasing its position in the company by 6%.

Earlier this October, Barclays analyst Lauren Lieberman raised the price target on PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) to $185 from $183 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares. According to Lieberman, the company’s “beat and raise” in Q3 was “firmly characteristic” of its “flexibility that screens all the more attractive in the current operating environment.”

At the end of the third quarter of 2022, 72 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $4.8 billion in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP), compared to 65 in the previous quarter worth $5.3 billion.

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Also in the stable and predictable cash flow camp, though with a very different business model, global food and beverage company PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) reported very strong organic growth in the first quarter, driven by healthy price/mix, and raised revenue guidance, while holding EPS guidance. Notably, its beverage business showed expanding margins.”