Molson Coors downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citi

Citi downgraded Molson Coors to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $56, down from $66. The company is starting to cycle a record year in 2023, which “greatly benefitted” from large U.S. market share benefits on the Coors Light and Miller Lite brands from the Bud Light controversy starting in mid-April 2023, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says that while Molson has sounded bullish on Q1 trends and spring shelf space resets, it believes cycling a record sales and profit year “could be extremely difficult.” Scanner data for early April suggest sales and volume trends for the company’s beer brands have turned negative, which Citi expects to continue as comparisons get more difficult, the analyst notes.