Molson Coors Brewing Being Chased Higher and Higher

Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) was given two positive analyst calls on Tuesday. One included a new Buy rating with a $130 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs sees upside after Molson takes full control over the MillerCoors operation. This looks solid because it is calling for some 21% upside, but there was an even more impressive resumption of analyst coverage at another firm.

Merrill Lynch resumed its Molson Coors coverage with a Buy rating and gave it a $140 price objective. Merrill Lynch’s investment rationale said that the company is in a position to drive improved sales growth, expand margins and grow free cash flow.

What Merrill Lynch sees as favorable is of course the pending acquisition of the 58% outstanding stake of the Miller Coors joint venture. Another strength seen is the Miller brands outside of the United States. The firm said:

We are resuming coverage of Molson Coors (TAP) with a Buy rating and $140 price objective. Our price objective applies a 20.9x P/E multiple to our 2017 estimated pro-forma cash earnings per share of $6.68. We expect Miller Coors/Miller international integration to catalyze sales growth and expanded margins & free cash flow.

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Back in September, Susquehanna gave a 2016 price target of $129 and set a 2017 price target of $159 for the beer-maker. Their view was for significant upside by December of 2018 once the bulk of the savings targets begin to flow to the bottom line. The firm also saw optionality down the road from some form of deal with Heineken.

Shares of Molson Coors Brewing were last seen up 2.1% at $109.95. The 52-week trading range is $78.17 to $111.24, and the consensus analyst price target is now $127.78.

Note that the consensus analyst price target has risen handily over the past 90 days. In mid-July that target was $111.25, and then it rose to $116.63. One other issue worth considering is that all nine of the Thomson Reuters analysts now have Buy ratings.

While every analyst is now extremely positive and with targets rising, investors should keep in mind that Molson Coors shares are now effectively up at all-time highs. They have also doubled since the start of 2014.

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