The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that National Bank analyst Vishal Shreedhar has reaffirmed his "outperform" recommendation for Lassonde Industries. The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Shreedhar gave his share target a $6 boost to $173. Analysts on average target the shares at $161.50. Mr. Shreedhar says in a note: "We expect juice industry demand to remain pressured amid elevated inflation and increasing consumer price sensitivity. We, however, model higher Lassonde sales, reflecting pricing, benefits from diversification/innovation and the lapping of challenged volumes last year. We model continued gross margin expansion year-over-year despite rising orange juice concentrate costs. Our blended index of select input costs, which is coarsely inversely correlated to the gross margin, continued to decline year-over-year in Q4/23. ... Though there remains near term uncertainty surrounding consumer health, cost inflation, and operational performance, we maintain a positive view given favourable valuation and expectations of improving performance." The Globe reported on Aug. 9 that Mr. Shreedhar rated Lassonde "outperform" in new coverage when it could be had for $124.30.