Wedbush on Tuesday initiated overage of five non-alcoholic beverage companies including Keurig Dr Pepper KDP, +1.91%, The Coca-Cola Company KO, +0.28%, PepsiCo PEP, +0.43%, Monster Beverage Corp MNST, -1.37%, and Celsius Holdings CELH, -4.05%. Wedbush said Keurig Dr Pepper is its top pick, with an outperform rating and a price target of $43 a share. Analysts at Wedbush said Keurig Dr Pepper stands out as the most underappreciated to core peers based on relative valuation despite the same long-term targets. “With capacity constraints now behind them in coffee, we expect revenue and profitability to accelerate with a continued benefit from the hybrid work model,” Wedbush said of Keurig Dr Pepper. “Across cold beverages, the company remains well positioned given their unique (flavored only) portfolio in carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) and an improving and accelerating revenue growth trajectory in juice.” Wedbush assigned outperform ratings to Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and rated both Monster Beverage and Celsius as neutral. Shares of Keurig Dr. Pepper are up 0.3% in 2022, while Coca-Cola is down 8.1% and Pepsi is lower by 6.8%. Monster Beverage is down 5.2% in 2022 and Celsius Holdings is up 19.7%. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.79% is down 24.2% in 2022 and the Nasdaq COMP, -1.33% has lost 32.6%.
