CELH Stock Sees Worst Day In Six Months As Investors Digest Margin Loss From Alani Nu, Rockstar

• Morgan Stanley sees sales momentum from Alani slowing. 
• Roth Capital sees higher aluminum and freight costs likely to slow the pace of margin expansion. 
• JP Morgan raised its target price by 4.7% to $70.

Celsius Holdings (CELH) stock tumbled about 9% on Monday, and was on track to record its worst day in nearly six months following price target cuts from Morgan Stanley earlier on Friday last week. 

Morgan Stanley analyst Eric Serotta lowered the firm's price target on CELH to $55 from $64 and maintained an ‘Overweight’ rating on the shares. Serotta sees a path to improving the Celsius brand, but also sees slowing Alani momentum.

Simultaneously, JPMorgan analyst Andrea Teixeira raised the firm's price target on Celsius to $70 from $67 and kept an ‘Overweight’ rating on the shares, and Roth Capital analyst Sean McGowan lowered the firm's price target on Celsius to $65 from $67 and kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares.

McGowan also highlighted in a note that higher aluminum and freight costs are likely to slow the pace of margin expansion.

Celsius Holdings, known for its fitness-focused energy drinks, made a range of acquisitions in April last year, including Alani Nu and Rockstar Energy. While Celsius and Alani Nu target wellness-conscious "new-age" drinkers, Rockstar provides a footprint in the classic energy sector, helping the company compete directly with giants like Monster and Red Bull. 

While CELH posted record revenues in its quarter ending March 2026, most of the growth came from its Alani Nu and Rockstar acquisitions, while sales of its core Celsius energy drink grew a mere 6%, raising investor concerns. 

However, much of the revenue growth came after CELH moved its Alani and Rockstar brands into the PepsiCo distribution system in August 2025, which drastically increased shelf space in convenience stores and international markets. 

CELH Q1 Earnings Highlights

CELH reported a record quarterly revenue of $782.6 million, representing 138% year-over-year growth, while also beating analyst expectations with adjusted earnings per share of $0.41, versus the forecasted $0.30 for its quarter ending March. 

However, most of the growth has come from sales of the newly acquired Alanu Nu and Rockstar Energy acquisitions, both of which are dilutive to gross margins. 

Celsius Holdings reported a consolidated gross margin of 48.3% in Q1’26, which was about 400 basis points lower than its margins in the same quarter last year.  

The core Celsius brand remains the highest-margin product, historically operating in the low-to-mid 50% range. Alani Nu and Rockstar have been identified by CELH management as a "lower margin profile" than the core Celsius brand. Alani Nu contributed to the 400-basis-point dip in overall consolidated margins.  

CELH Retail View 

Retail Sentiment on Stocktwits was “extremely bullish” with “extremely high” message volumes. 

One user showed bullishness by wishing for extra capital to “buy the dip.”

The stock has lost 36% year-to-date.

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