BMO下调Albertsons评级并称其降价与降本进展不足

Albertsons Companies’ (ACI) shares are limping to the end of the week nearly 27% lower from a week ago after the grocery chain missed profit guidance and slashed its full-year outlook to reflect a more cautious consumer environment and soft industry trends.
"While [fiscal first quarter] results did not meet our expectations, they underscored the need to move faster," said CEO Susan Morris. "We are accelerating change to strengthen our competitiveness and improve execution across the business," she added.
Unfortunately, BMO’s Kelly Bania doesn’t think Albertsons is moving fast enough on cost reductions to fund better pricing, “leaving us to worry that future profitability remains at risk.”
As a result, Bania downgraded Albertsons (ACI) to Market Perform from Outperform and cut her target price by nearly half to $12 to more accurately reflect the repricing of the stock. She also lowered her fiscal second quarter EPS estimate to $0.29 from $0.43 and FY27 to $1.78 from $2.22.
“Our May 2025 upgrade was clearly not the right call,” Bania wrote in her note to clients, basing the earlier ratings change on early signs of EBITDA stabilization that would help improve valuation.
“However, it’s clear ACI is not moving fast enough to provide a more compelling value offering against a fast-changing food retail backdrop,” specifically with lower-income consumers who continue to migrate to Walmart (WMT), Amazon (AMZN), and Aldi.
Given signs of increased pricing competition and the weak industry backdrop, there is a risk of continued EBITDA decay for Albertsons (ACI), which should lead the grocer to consider strategic alternatives. Given its unionized workforce, Bania sees limited M&A options—especially after the failed Kroger (KR) merger. That leaves asset sales as a remaining option.