New York, June 13, 2026, 15:06 EDT
- Celsius Holdings shares closed Friday at $29.18, up $0.79, or about 2.8%, after fresh bullish analyst coverage.
- Bernstein SocGen began coverage with an Outperform rating and a $44 price target, while investors continued to debate Alani Nu’s growth against margin and regulatory risks.
- The next catalyst is Celsius’s appearance at the Jefferies Consumer Conference on June 16–17.
Celsius Holdings, Inc. shares ended Friday at $29.18, up $0.79 from the previous close, with volume of about 9.27 million shares and a market value near $7.58 billion. The move followed a new bullish call from Bernstein SocGen, where analyst Cristian Rios initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $44 price target; a price target is an analyst’s estimate of where a stock could trade over the next 12 months, not a guarantee.
The stock rose because investors had a fresh reason to revisit the growth story after months of pressure. Stocks usually rise when buyers believe new information improves expected future earnings or lowers perceived risk; they fall when growth slows, margins weaken, legal risk increases, or investors decide the valuation is too high. In Celsius’s case, the latest bull argument is that the company has shifted from a single-brand energy-drink story into a broader portfolio built around CELSIUS, Alani Nu and Rockstar Energy, with Bernstein’s call highlighting Alani Nu as a potential offset to softer core-brand momentum.
The essential background is strong, but not risk-free. Celsius reported first-quarter revenue of $782.6 million, up 138% from a year earlier, helped by the Alani Nu and Rockstar Energy acquisitions. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.41, while adjusted EBITDA — a profit measure that strips out interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and certain items — rose to $195.5 million. Chairman and CEO John Fieldly called the quarter “a defining period,” saying the company reached about 20.9% dollar share of the U.S. energy drink category. Celsius Holdings
The bull case is that Celsius now has scale in one of the most resilient parts of the beverage market. Alani Nu delivered about $368.1 million of sales in the first quarter, Rockstar added about $66.6 million, and the total Celsius portfolio posted a 20.9% share of the U.S. ready-to-drink energy category in tracked channels. Alani Nu retail sales rose 100% year over year in the 13 weeks ended March 29, while the CELSIUS brand still grew retail sales 6%.
The bear case is that the mix is less clean than the headline revenue growth suggests. Gross margin — the percentage of revenue left after product costs — fell to 48.3% from 52.3% a year earlier, partly because Alani Nu and Rockstar came with lower margin profiles. Rockstar retail sales also fell 13% year over year in the same tracked period, and the core CELSIUS brand’s 6% growth is much slower than the company’s earlier hyper-growth phase.
Regulatory risk is another reason the stock remains volatile. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on June 4 that his office is investigating Celsius and Alani Nutrition over whether the companies misled consumers about the safety of energy drinks for children and teens; the Texas release said each 12-ounce Alani Nu can contains 200 milligrams of caffeine. Celsius denied the allegations in a statement reported by FoodNavigator-USA, saying its labels disclose caffeine content, include responsible-use guidance, and that its policy is not to market or sample energy drinks to anyone under 18.
That leaves Celsius looking attractive only for investors willing to accept a high-risk growth recovery, rather than a clearly cheap defensive stock. The current trailing price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E — the share price divided by earnings per share — is about 65, which means the market is still pricing in meaningful future profit growth. Bernstein’s $44 target points to upside from Friday’s close, but that upside depends on Alani Nu maintaining momentum, margins improving, Rockstar stabilizing, and the Texas investigation not leading to wider legal or labeling pressure.
The next event investors should watch is the Jefferies Consumer Conference on June 16–17. Any management comments on PepsiCo distribution, Alani Nu demand, gross-margin recovery, international expansion, or the Texas probe could matter for the stock because Celsius is currently trading less on one quarter’s sales number and more on whether investors believe its multi-brand energy-drink platform can deliver durable earnings growth.
