In a report released yesterday, Michael Van Aelst from TD Cowen reiterated a Buy rating on Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc, with a price target of C$100.00.
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Michael Van Aelst has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors that highlight Alimentation Couche-Tard’s resilient operating performance despite recent share price weakness. He notes that the company’s U.S. same-store sales growth is strong, broad-based across most business units, and meaningfully ahead of key competitors, while trends in Canada and Europe are also solid once lower-margin cigarette sales are stripped out.
He also emphasizes that gross margin pressure appears largely driven by deliberate investments in fresh food and traffic-building initiatives rather than by adverse external forces, with merchandise gross profit dollars still growing. In addition, fuel margins remain robust and may be structurally supported by Couche-Tard’s enhanced fuel supply, trading, and logistics capabilities, leading him to maintain healthy EBITDA and EPS growth forecasts and to view the recent share price decline as disconnected from fundamentals.
Van Aelst covers the Consumer Defensive sector, focusing on stocks such as Loblaw Companies, Metro Inc., and Saputo Inc.. According to TipRanks, Van Aelst has an average return of 8.2% and a 63.47% success rate on recommended stocks.
In another report released today, TipRanks – DeepSeek also upgraded the stock to a Buy with a C$92.00 price target.