The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Aug. 20, edition that BMO analyst Tamy Chen has cut her recommendation for Alimentation Couche-Tard to "market perform" from "outperform." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Ms. Chen's share target fell by a loonie to $75. Analysts on average target the shares at $83.54. Ms. Chen says in a note: "Our previous 'outperform' reflected our anticipation that Couche-Tard's U.S. merchandise SSS [same-store sales] should at some point lap and rebound back to its historical 2- to 4-per-cent range. What's changed? After the overhang related to Seven & I was eliminated, we returned our focus to the company's organic growth. Our analysis concluded that Couche-Tard's U.S. merchandise SSS may remain tepid for some time. Meanwhile, we expect opex and D&A growth to remain elevated over our forecast period. On SSS, we are unsure if weakness in the low-income consumer is the key driver of Couche-Tard's muted comps given broader economic data shows a resilient U.S. consumer. Couche-Tard is contending with a challenging product mix. Cigarettes are its largest category and headwinds have worsened vs. prepandemic while the categories that are growing still represent a much smaller mix."