Last night Campari announced Q4 LFL sales growth of 4.7%, representing a clear acceleration from Q2 (+3.5%) and Q3 (+4.4%).

In comparison, analysts had been expecting much lower organic growth of around 1.6% over Q4 2025.

A "L'Oréal-style" Q4

In a reaction note, RBC teams hailed performance "worthy of L'Oréal", which had reported a solid year-end a few weeks ago marked by 6% LFL growth.

"This significant acceleration in revenue growth in the fourth quarter (....) is impressive, especially given the still difficult backdrop for the spirits sector and the results published by its competitors," the Canadian broker said, which has a "neutral" rating on the stock with a target of €5.8.

"This shows that continued investments in advertising and promotion are working, and that should continue this year," RBC added, notably praising the management team's continued focus on its strategic brands, starting with Aperol.

On their own, sales of the bitter-tasting orange aperitif jumped 8% organically in Q4.

Overall, the Milan-based group's revenue fell 0.6% last year to €3.05bn, representing organic growth of 2.4%, broadly in line with consensus.

EBIT excluding exceptional items, rose 5.4% to €637m, lifting the operating margin by 0.6 percentage point to 20.9%.

A pleasant surprise on the dividend

The owner of Courvoisier, Wild Turkey and Grand Marnier also plans to propose a 2025 dividend up 54% at €0.10 per share, versus €0.065 the previous year, corresponding to a payout ratio of net profit.

All these positive elements pushed into the background guidance deemed "a bit vague" by some observers.

For FY 2026, the group provided no precise target, merely stating it expected to "outperform the sector, with a sustained pace of underlying organic revenue growth in 2026".

Consensus currently forecasts 3.5% organic growth for the year.

"The group's positioning in spirits with higher consumption frequency should allow it to remain in growth territory
more likely than its peers," Oddo BHF analysts said this morning.

"But that is reflected in the valuation premium in terms of P/E (19x 2026 vs Diageo and Pernod Ricard > 12x) in a still very fragile environment for the sector," the brokerage said, therefore maintaining its "neutral" stance on the stock, with a price target of €6.6.

At around 10:30 a.m., Campari shares were up over 8% at above €6.4 on the Milan stock exchange in reaction to these results. The stock thus posted the second-best performance in the pan-European index, up 0.3% at this stage, and moved back into positive territory (+0.1%) since the start of the year.

In its wake, Pernod Ricard gained 0.6%, Remy Cointreau 1.1% and Diageo 0.8%.