UPDATE: Morgan Stanley Downgrades Molson Coors Brewing to Underweight on Reduced Growth Outlook

Morgan Stanley reduced its rating on Molson Coors Brewing

from Equal-weight to Underweight with a $45 price target. Morgan Stanley noted, "We forecast muted 4% LT pro-forma EPS growth at TAP, at the very low end of our coverage, mainly given limited volume growth due to: (a) beer category market share losses to wine/spirits; (b) TAP market share losses within the beer category; and (c) TAP's skew to lower growth developed markets. From a margin standpoint, we are concerned that TAP's base business expansion potential will be limited by a sequential slowdown in cost-cutting, and that margins for the acquired StarBev business look unsustainably high relative to global brewing peers." Molson Coors Brewing closed at $45.05 on Friday.