Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) Analysts Downgrade Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) Shares to “Market Perform”

Posted by on Jan 13th, 2012 // 16 Comments

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS) was downgraded by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report issued on Friday.

Separately, analysts at The Oxen Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Dr Pepper Snapple Group in a research note to investors on Wednesday, December 28th. Analysts at Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) initiated coverage on shares of Dr Pepper Snapple Group in a research note to investors on Wednesday, December 21st. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Also, analysts at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) downgraded shares of Dr Pepper Snapple Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note to investors on Tuesday, November 15th. They now have a $36.00 price target on the stock.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (DPS) is an integrated brand owner, manufacturer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages in the United States, Canada and Mexico with a varied portfolio of flavored (non-cola) carbonated soft drinks (CSD) and non-carbonated beverages (NCB), including ready-to-drink teas, juices, juice drinks and mixers. DPS has three segments: Beverage Concentrates, Packaged Beverages and Latin America Beverages. The Company’s brand portfolio includes CSD brands, such as Dr Pepper, Sunkist soda, 7UP, A&W, Canada Dry, Crush, Squirt, Penafiel, Schweppes and Venom Energy, and NCB brands, such as Snapple, Mott’s, Hawaiian Punch, Clamato, Rose’s and Mr & Mrs T mixers. DPS operates primarily in the United States, Mexico and Canada and it also distributes the products in the Caribbean.

Shares of Dr Pepper Snapple Group opened at 37.96 on Friday. Dr Pepper Snapple Group has a 52 week low of $33.68 and a 52 week high of $43.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $38.10 and its 200-day moving average is $38.16. The company has a market cap of $8.138 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44.



  • Vince

    They have to know this about more than a sugary soda pop, it’s about selling out a small town’s legacy, it’s about corporate greed screwing the little guy, it’s about stealing a cherished way of life, it’s about the lack of respect for the consumer, it’s about the erosion of small town American industry, it’s about lost jobs, and it’s about right vs. wrong. Dr. Pepper/ Snapple has committed an atrocity here and they will have to live with the damage they have caused. I won’t be part of it- I am boycotting them and ALL of their products across the board, as is everybody I know or can influence. I hope they enjoy their hard won victory over tiny little Dublin.

    • thatonewolf

      Here here!

    • Teresa

      I’m going to pop open this Mr.Pibb and cheers to that! I won’t be drinking another Dr. Pepper product until they put the DUBLIN back in the Dr. Pepper!!

      • LUSA Staff

        Love it!

    • Gary

      Does no one understand that Dublin was in the wrong? Many other small bottlers were angry at Dublin for selling in their territories – against the licensing agreement. These other bottlers did not have the means to fight Dublin and protect their businesses, so DPS stepped in. Other distributors had the rights to sell the brand in their counties, and Dublin was hurting their sales by selling their “Dublin DP”. I don’t believe DPS ever wanted this to come to a lawsuit, much less a buyout. This has nothing to do with corporate greed. Dublin means very little to DPS fiscally. It’s about protecting their brand and making sure the independent bottlers follow the licensing agreements they have. Dublin did not make or “bottle” the DP. It was bottled by the Temple TX plant (also independent from DPS). While this is very sad – it could have easily been avoided if Dublin adhered to the deal that they signed.

      • Johann

        Gary. I appreciate your statement, but you are factually incorrect. Dublin DP did not have a distribution network with the exception of direct orders shipped by mail. The Dr Pepper distributors individually purchased the product from Dublin and distributed it outside of Dublin’s market due to popular demand. I have spoken with numerous retailers, including Albertsons, Kroger and Tom Thumb and all stated the Dr Pepper distributor was responsible for the Dublin Dr Pepper displays I saw in each store in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Dr Pepper, on its own website, referred individuals unable to obtain Heritage Dr Pepper, only available in Pepsi distribution areas, to Dublin Dr Pepper, from as far away as Ohio.
        Dr Pepper Snapple initiated this lawsuit due to the forays into “Heritage” Dr. Pepper and beet sugar soda products, shown successful by “Real Sugar Pepsi” and other products. They are destroying their number 1 competition in market share of Real Sugar products in advance of marketing these products.
        Less than 9% of the bottlers of Dr Pepper are independent bottlers. The majority are Pepsico and Coca Cola bottlers under license.

        While I understand your defense of Dr Pepper, research into the subject would help you to understand that Dr Pepper is no longer a family owned Texas company. It is a corporate juggernaut who has succumbed to the “dark side” and is employing tactics used by Coca Cola against it, much to its vehement complaint, during the mid nineties.

  • Robb

    Karma’s a wonderful thing sometimes. The City of Dublin (Texas) bottled your sugary swill for over 120 years. Even when you sold out and went to HFCS, they stayed faithful. I’m glad to see you fail, just a little. Hopefully your blank-eyed suits sitting in Plano (Also Texas) will all see their portfolios shrink to nothing, and live with the knowledge that you;ve ruined the lives of 14 people directly (They were laid off the day you won your lawsuit), and 6 counties in Texas indirectly (Consumers being deprived of a locally beloved product, one that people drove hours to attain sometimes). Good job, you soulless vampires. I’m not one to blast big business for being big business, but I’ll damn sure rag you for cold, stupid decisions like this one.

  • Suzanne

    Dr. Pepper has been my soft drink of choice for the majority of my 46 years. I seldom drank Dublin Dr. Pepper, only as a rare treat, but what Dr. Pepper/Snapple has done has nothing to do with the actual flavor of a soft drink. I’m sick of seeing large corporations stomp all over even the smallest competitor. Really, how much of the market share was Dublin taking? And how much has been taken from a small community? Dr. Pepper/Snapple obviously doesn’t care.

    I love the taste of Dr. Pepper, Dublin or the other, but I didn’t even finish the one (not the Dublin kind…) I was drinking at the time I read what had happened, and I won’t have anything to do with any Dr. Pepper/Snapple products unless they decide to let Dublin Dr. Pepper come back.

    What used to be pleasant for me has now just left a bad taste in my mouth…

  • Richard

    This is outrageous. I have been a loyal Dr. Pepper drinker for close to 60 years. I can not support you any longer after this. What were ya’ll thinking doing this nonsense. Are you not making enough money as it is, you need more? I will be switching to a Coke product
    called Gold Peak Tea as it is the best bottled tea anywhere. Please give us and the people of Dublin back our wonderful product. I will not buy another Dr. Pepper or Snaple product until justice is done and Dublin is restored to us.

  • janice parker

    Unbelievably stupid& mean-spirited decision re/Dublin Dr Pepper! Sign me “no longer a customer.” Don’t count on me to buy any of your products hereafter. You obviously believe losing a customer or 2 does not mean much. But most of your products are sold just 1 customer at a time. Consider that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Dr-Pepper/176357505770366?sk=wall&filter=1&ref=notif&notif_t=wall Boycott Dr. Pepper

    Then join me at Boycott Dr. Pepper on facebook. We are Texans who support Dublin. And are working hard at boycotting all of their products.

  • JB

    Bad business = bad karma. Oh how they have missed the bigger picture…rather than embracing a product that is loved with passion and undying support, they get heavy handed and destroy the good faith and loyalty the brand had earned. Enjoy the fallout, jerks.

  • Jmsugtx

    I really hope Dr. Pepper admits their mistake. I also hope that people don’t just lay down and succumb to the corporate marketing strategies that this company will do to wash this one over. I used to drink Dr. Pepper, but not anymore.

  • Cameron

    I am truly saddened to learn of the dismantling of Dublin Dr. Pepper. In an era where the food industry is continually cheapening products to further profits, I have always seen Dublin Dr. Pepper as one of the last strongholds against an industry that is now completely toxic. In some ways, Dublin Dr. Pepper created a sense of nostalgia, and in another, it fostered images of a time when industry was more about quality rather than greed. Dublin Dr. Pepper stood up for hard working individuals, the working man. Dublin Dr. Pepper was a drink you could grab on a hot summer day to recharge and relax after being beaten down by the hot Texas sun. Surely, no one at your mega-corporation would have any concept of that feeling, or possibly have feelings at all, but for us in Texas, we still have a pulse. Standing up for a soda and the folks in Dublin seems pretty silly, but this is important. It’s important to me and to the folks in Dublin. It’s important to my friends, their children, and my children. Dublin Dr. Pepper wasn’t a “throwback,” it was the real deal, and no future marketing gimmick is ever going to change that, not for me, and not for anyone else. Fortunately, when the dust has all settled from your attempts to destroy our sense of wholesomeness, you will realize that none of us are standing behind your brand any longer. There are other soda companies that are coming along, that make great and wholesome beverages, you know the ones with natural ingredients instead of a long list of chemicals? Those companies will be the ones we support, and those are the sodas we’ll be drinking after our hard days of work, baseball games, and at our 4th of July celebrations. No more Dr. Pepper for me, no more for my family and friends, not after those 23 flavors left a sour taste with us all. No more 10, 2, and 4, you can have it all back.

  • lb

    50 years drinking DP no more. not another penny! I didn’t like the for men only BS now you kill a piece of Texas heritage. so wrong so very wrong.

  • rita

    I have been a loyal DP fan for as many years as I have been drinking soda and have been making 150 mile round trip pilgrimages to Dublin for about 20 yrs to buy cases of their 6.5oz bottles. I honestly don’t understand what Snapple hoped to achieve by shutting them down. Dublin wasn’t their competition, they were their legacy! With this move they have made a lifetime enemy out of me and with that a lifetime of bad PR. If there is one thing I’m good its holding a grudge, and in the era of social networking this can be exponentially far reaching and infinitely damaging. From now on its not ‘Remember the Alamo’ we are shouting in Texas it’s ‘Remember Dublin’!

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