Fitch Takes A Sip Out Of Pepsi's Ratings (PEP)

Fitch is cutting Pepsi's PEP rating outlook to negative, but is keeping its rating at A+ after the North America beverage giant announced yesterday it would be buying a 66% stake in Wimm-Bill-Dann WBD for $3.8 billion. "The negative outlook reflects that PepsiCo's leverage is currently high for the A+ rating category," said Fitch in a statement. At last check, shares of PEP were off 7 cents to $65.13.