The US investment bank Lehman Brothers has upgraded the soft drink producer Cott Corporation to “1-Overweight Sector” from “2-Equal weight”, citing the prospect of increased sales and profits.
The bank’s analyst Michael Branca said: “We believe the company is in the sweet spot of many industry trends that will drive accelerating top-and bottom-line growth in 2004 and 2005 and strong gains over the next five years.
“Given our confidence in Cott’s ability to more profitably grow its top-line, we are raising our fiscal 2004 earnings per share (target) to $1.25 (4 cents above consensus) and fiscal 2005 EPS to $1.50 (8 cents above the street), predicated on strong, near double-digit annual revenue growth and low to mid-teen EBITDA gains.”
