The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, March 20, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Vishal Shreedhar has reaffirmed his "outperform" recommendation for Alimentation Couche-Tard. The Globe's Darcy Keith writes that Mr. Shreedhar edged his share target ahead by a loonie to $89. Analysts on average target the shares at $90.09. Analysts were generally pleased with Couche-Tard's fiscal third quarter results. Mr. Shreedhar called it a "generally solid performance," with "good merchandising execution." Revenue was $21.8-billion, not far from the consensus of $22.2-billion, while merchandise gross profit was $1.99-billion vs. Mr. Shreedhar's estimate of $2.01-billion. Mr. Shreedhar says in a note: "Merchandise same-store sales growth was positive across all regions. Food was solid with mid-to-high-single digit same-store sales growth in the U.S. and mid-single-digit same-store sales growth in Canada. Importantly, ATD indicated broad-based solid merchandise trends continued to date notwithstanding a rise in oil prices. The key for ATD is to deliver sustained growth via organic drivers and complementary acquisitions, in addition to share repurchases. We believe ATD is demonstrating momentum in merchandising."