We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round: Top 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) stands against other top stocks from Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round.
Jim Cramer in a recent program on CNBC recommended investors to avoid worrying when others are anxious or get too excited about something when others are also doing the same. Cramer said by the time an idea is common among investors, its price already reflects its potential.
“Stocks don’t quite travel at the speed of thought but they come pretty close. So the moment a preponderance of hedge fund and mutual fund managers decide that the economy is slowing, speeding up, or flatlining, stocks start trading like that’s already the case. Usually, it takes some time to build that kind of consensus, which is why you rarely see these moves happening instantaneously. But once the big institutional portfolio managers are on the same page about something, you can be pretty darn confident that it’s baked into the averages. This is some basic economics 101 stuff.”
If every piece of news is priced in, does that mean it’s meaningless to invest in stocks and you are better off putting your money in broader market funds? Cramer calls this idea “bogus” and says the market is pretty irrational at times and stocks are incorrectly priced, giving investors an opportunity.
“The simple truth is that markets are not perfectly efficient. In fact, frankly, they’re often irrational. They ignore things, make mistakes, misvalue information every day. And that’s a major reason why anyone can make money picking individual stocks. These anomalies are everywhere, and they can be great for your portfolio,” Cramer added.
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In
For this article, we watched the latest programs of Jim Cramer and picked 10 stocks he is talking about these days. With each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A close up of a glass of a refreshing carbonated beverage illustrating the company’s different beverages.
PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 58
Jim Cramer in a latest program talked about PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) and warned investors about the potential headwinds for the company stemming from weight loss drugs.
“Look, it’s not expensive, yields three and a half—not a bad level to start a position. But understand you’re up against GLP-1s, or at least the elusive story of what GLP-1s can do to a company that owns Frito-Lay.”
Artisan Global Equity Fund stated the following regarding PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in its Q1 2024 investor letter:
“In the demographics/consumer trends theme, slowing sales volumes led us to focus more on services versus goods. As an example, we sold our position in food and beverage leader PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) given slowing growth in its underperforming core beverage business, one which generates about 60% of revenues. Adding to the uncertainty of growth prospects beverages, PepsiCo was forced by local lawmakers and industry wholesalers to shift to a new distribution model during the rollout of Hard Mtn Dew, a new line of drinks that combines Mountain Dew with malt liquor. We also exited our position in Wal-Mart de Mexico as the company regroups after Hurricane Otis devastated parts of Mexico’s west coast last fall. The damages will likely affect earnings over the medium term. We also sold consumer food and beverage giant Nestle due to slowing sales volume growth. Food inflation over the last two years has increased consumer price sensitivity, putting pressure on many in the industry. In contrast to these goods providers, we bought shares of TUI, an online travel agency that provides custom travel experiences via dynamically priced services such as airfare, lodging and local activities on one platform. We believe the addition of Ryanair to the platform, Europe’s largest airline, will strengthen TUI’s service offering at a time when travel spending is predicted to remain elevated at least through the summer.”
Overall, PEP ranks 8th on our list of top stocks from Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round. While we acknowledge the potential of PEP, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PEP but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
