Citi is uniquely optimistic on Boston Beer shares. Analyst Filippo Falorni upgraded shares of the Twisted Tea and Angry Orchard parent to buy from neutral and hiked his price target by $15 to $280. Falorni’s new price target suggests 27.8% upside over Wednesday’s close. With the upgrade, Falorni is now an outlier on Wall Street. The lion’s share of analysts have hold ratings on the stock, according to LSEG. Falorni’s call comes ahead of the national launch for the Sun Cruiser brand, an iced-tea-and-vodka mixture, in the first half of this year. The analyst noted that the release will be aided by an advertising boost of between $30 million and $50 million. “SAM topline trends over the past decade have been very volatile with peaks associated with successful innovation launches … and the troughs on the cycling of those success stories,” Falorni wrote to clients on Thursday. “Post 3 years of negative depletions (2022-24) on the cycling of the hard seltzer boom, we see the potential for a return to volume growth in 2025 with slightly improving Truly trends, normalizing Twisted Tea growth, and the Sun Cruiser contribution.”” To be sure, Falorni said the company could face trouble given a slowdown in Twisted Tea sales based on scanner data. But he pointed to poor weather seen recently and easing comps going forward as reasons to remain optimistic on the brand, which he said accounts for about 57% of the company’s sales. SAM YTD mountain Boston Beer, year to date Boston Beer’s valuation is currently below historical levels and has the potential to grow, according to Falorni. He also said the stock’s gross margins can return to sitting around the high 40% area given the company’s initiatives. Shares ticked 0.6% higher in Thursday’s premarket trading. The stock has plunged nearly 27% in 2025.
