UBS upgraded Doctor Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) from neutral to buy, citing the company's strong fundamentals and a share buyback program.
The brokerage also raised its price target on Doctor Pepper to $42 from $31.
Doctor Pepper has received $900 million from a licensing deal with Pepsico Inc. (PEP) and UBS said the company should receive as much as $1.1 billion from a deal with Coca Cola. (KO), most of which will be returned to shareholders.
Shares of Doctor Pepper were up about 4% in Thursday trading.
