PepsiCo shares close higher on Friday, company announces exclusive beverage partnership with FAT Brands

FAT Brands Inc and PepsiCo Inc (PEP) have formed an exclusive beverage partnership, the companies said last week.

FAT Brands is building on its beverage relationship with PepsiCo to include brands such as the Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, Elevation Burger, Buffalo’s Cafe and Buffalo’s Express, it said.

Under the new partnership, local FAT Brands restaurants will offer customers up to a dozen popular beverages from the diverse PepsiCo portfolio, including Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, MTN DEW, Brisk Iced Tea, Tropicana Fruit Punch and Dr. Pepper.

FAT Brands and PepsiCo also intend to introduce new, brand-specific offerings at restaurants, such as a new Fatburger Lemonade.

“We’ve had a strong, dynamic relationship for many years, so we’re pleased to offer even more of our FAT Brands’ guests fan-classics from PepsiCo, in addition to exciting new offerings,” Andy Wiederhorn, Chief Executive Officer of FAT Brands, said in a press release.

“At PepsiCo, we offer a diverse array of choices across our food and beverage portfolio to bring smiles to people’s faces and meet their individual tastes and preferences,” Hugh Roth, Chief Customer Officer, PepsiCo Foodservice, said.

“Our holistic partnership with FAT Brands boosts our shared ability to deliver the best and most modern consumer experiences by enhancing its restaurants’ range of delicious dishes with our breadth of beloved brands. We look forward to working together to deliver an unrivaled level of growth,” Roth added.

PepsiCo shares closed higher for the fourth time in the past ten trading sessions on NASDAQ on Friday. The stock went up 0.98% ($1.43) to $147.94, after touching an intraday low at $147.28 and an intraday high at $148.48 respectively.

Shares of PepsiCo Inc have retreated 0.24% so far in 2021 compared with an 11.93% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2020, PepsiCo’s stock went up 8.51%, thus, it again underperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 16.26% gain.

Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation

According to CNN Money, at least 10 out of 22 surveyed investment analysts had rated PepsiCo Inc’s stock as “Buy”, while 9 – as “Hold”. The median price target on the stock stands at $155.00.