This week, five of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top Ten.
| Ticker | Account Value |
| ADP | 4,719.54 |
| HTO | 4,438.08 |
| PEP | 3,165.49 |
| PPG | 3,713.49 |
| SCL | 4,312.56 |
The lowest amount belongs to PEP. We will acquire 2 shares of PEP on Monday morning. Below, is the purchase history and average cost calculation.
Eight months after our last look at PEP, it’s the perfect moment to examine how its recent performance fits into the broader arc of the past seventeen years.
Observations
Stock Price
After reaching an all-time high of 196.88 in May of 2023, PEP’s share price has gone through a rather long and volatile price consolidation. It is approaching support around the $117 level.
It has come back up above that level, but it really wasn’t because of their recent earnings announcement – the price improvement preceded the announcement. Time will tell if the price holds above $117 now or if perhaps, we find a retracement all the way to $100 before finding support.
Earnings
Magnitude/Trend
Clearly, the quarterly earnings remain in a strong, long-term, positive trend as is evinced by the linear, blue dotted line in the chart above. 2026Q2 EPS of $1.46 is a 9% improvement over the same period in the prior year and a record for Q2 earnings. Q2 closed out their fiscal year with an all-time high EPS of $6.67, up 7% over the previous fiscal year.
2026H1 EPS of $2.81 was just 2 cents shy of the 2025H1 EPS of $2.83, their best start to a calendar year ever. But I guess that’s enough to continue punishinng the stock.
Seasonality
Typically, the quarterly distribution of annual earnings breaks down as follows: 15.8% in Q1, 23.3% in Q2, 26.8% in Q3, and 34.1% in Q4. With the exception of Q1, the variation around these percentages is minimal. The difference between the halves of the calendar year is a bit more pronounced with the first half typically coming in at 39.1% and the second half at 60.1%.
As I mentioned, MZTI’s fiscal year ends with the Q2 of the calendar year and there is no guidance available for the next two calendar quarters. Therefore, some liberties have to be taken in order to visualize how this calendar year might end. With 2026H1 EPS of $2.81, and the historical average of H1 representing 39.1% of a calendar year’s EPS, it isn’t difficult to see last year’s record high of $6.69 falling to a new record of $7.19. BUT! If you throw out 2014 and 2022 when the Q1 EPS was negative, the typical H1 of a CY is more like 42%. And what if $2.81 ends up as 42% of the whole year’s EPS, well then that EPS would be about $6.69.
Folks, MZTI could very easily see 2026 as their best calendar year ever. Even so, could the stock be trading even lower by the end of the year? You know it.
Dividends
MZTI became a Dividend King 13 years ago! They pay dividends and they increase those dividends annually. The dividend is currently yielding 3.5% and the payout ratio is a very safe 59%.
Thoughts on Investment
The trailing 12-month P/E ratio is currently 17.22, lower than the average for MZTI of 28.36 over the period above.
Whether or not CY2026 will set a record for EPS, there is nothing to suggest MZTI won’t keep raising its dividend annually.
Further, Morningstar, Sure Dividend, GuruFocus, and Simply Wall St, have their fair value estimates falling within a range of $138 to $204, while the average from analysts who follow MZTI is near the lower end of that range with $146.
Clearly there is more upside potential than downside and that is how a stock finds its way to #1 in a weekly Top Ten.