Constellation Brands price target lowered to $288 from $295 at Barclays

Barclays analyst Lauren Lieberman lowered the firm’s price target on Constellation Brands to $288 from $295 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm says that while Molson Coors (TAP) and Constellation Brands (STZ) have both “gotten swept up in a negative thesis opposite increasingly constructive sentiment” for Anheuser-Busch Inbev (BUD), the path forward is “decidedly different between the two companies.” Putting two names in the same bucket as AB Inbev is a “significant oversimplification,” the analyst tells investors in a research note. It sees a difficult path ahead for Molson, with the soft industry background exacerbating the negative operating leverage dynamics to come for the company. By contrast, Constellation’s beer business is a mid-single-digit volume grower over the medium term and Barclays has high conviction in its ability to continue to hit numbers, says the analyst.