The Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) is America's largest microbrewer, producing more than twenty seasonal and year-round varieties of Samuel Adams brand craft-brewed beers at facilities in Cincinnati and Boston. The company moved to boost its capacity last summer, with the purchase of a Pennsylvania brewery from Diageo (NYSE: DEO). The new facility is expected to begin producing Samuel Adams beers in the third or fourth quarter of 2008. The company also makes and distributes Twisted Tea brand malt beverages and HardCore brand ciders. Products are distributed to retailers in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific Rim. Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) is a major competitor.
The firm pleased investors last week, when it reported Q4 EPS of 46 cents and revenues of $92.2 million. Analysts had been looking for 35 cents and $88.9 million. Management also guided FY08 EPS to $1.70-$2.00, versus Street consensus of ($1.68).
The most recent quarter was good for Boston Beer Co. Inc. (NYSE: SAM), which reported that its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled, and not too bad for Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), which posted a narrower-than-expected loss for the first quarter.
For the quarter that ended December 29, Boston Beer's net income jumped to $6.8 million, or 46 cents per share, from $2.5 million, or 17 cents per share, in the prior year quarter. Revenue rose 26% to $92.2 million from the same period of 2006. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 35 cents per share on revenue of $88.9 million.
The company credited its performance to drinkers trading up to craft beers, as well as increasing retailer and wholesale support for the craft category and for Samuel Adams. The company noted that its Twisted Tea brand also performed well in the quarter.
For the full year, profit grew 24% from a year ago, to $22.5 million, or $1.53 per share, while revenue grew 20% to $341.6 million.
Boston Beer shares rose $2.02, or 6%, to close at $35.81, and continued to rise in after-hours trading.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: GSI Technology, Array Biopharma and Continental Resources were today's noteworthy initiations:
Merriman believes GSI Technology Inc (NASDAQ: GSIT) is positioned to benefit as growing bandwidth demand and increasingly complex protocols drive the need for faster and higher density memory in networking equipment. The firm started shares with a Buy rating.
Array Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ: ARRY) was assumed with an Outperform rating at William Blair. The firm thinks the company's pipeline contains significant value, which will be catalyzed over the next 12-18 months by continued clinical progress and potential partnerships.
Continental Resources Inc (NYSE: CLR) was initiated with a Buy rating and $30 target at Jefferies, and points to the company's double-digit growth and strong reserve growth potential.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Lehman initiated Ventas Inc (NYSE: VTR) with an Equal Weight rating $46 target and HCP Inc (NYSE: HCP) with an Overweight rating.
With earnings report rolling out one after another, there's hardly time to pause to enjoy a burger and a beer. Among companies reporting next week are Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) and Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP), and here are a quickie earnings previews for them.
Burger King has beat Wall Street earnings estimates for the past four quarters. When it reported fourth quarter 2007 results back in August, earnings were 29 cents per share, beating Wall Street estimates by two cents, and 11cents more than in the same period of the previous year. For the full year, earnings were $1.11 per share, again beating expectations by a pair of pennies. For the current quarter, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting 33 cents per share.
The most recent analysts' consensus recommendation is to buy BKC, and has been for the past year. The share price has been climbing since the slump after excitement of the IPO wore off, and it reached a 52-week high of $27.73 at the close on Friday.
For news about Burger King and its rivals that could influence Burger King's results, check out BloggingStocks' Burger King coverage.
First of all, Boston Beer didn't really miss EPS estimates if you exclude capitalized brewery costs related to the Massachusetts brewery project, which essentially serves as a write-off and thus is considered a one-time charge. These costs amounted to 14 cents per share and, when backed out, the EPS figure rises to 60 cents per share -- 2 cents better than consensus.
More importantly for Wall Street, the company raised its full year guidance to $1.42-$1.70 per share -- around the consensus estimate of $1.61 per share and above prior guidance which peaked at $1.55 per share. On all of this news, the stock is up around 2% so far in after-hours trading.
This is a very interesting company. Its primary brands Twisted Tea and Samuel Adams are becoming increasingly popular among consumers who are willing to pay up for quality beer. But at more than $45 per share, with earnings power of roughly $1.60 per share this year, I think the multiple is too high. I'd much rather pay $50 per share for Anheuser Busch (NYSE: BUD), a company that has earnings power of more than $2.80 per share for this year, in my opinion. Even if the growth rate is significantly slower, I believe the spread between the multiples will likely collapse -- either Anheuser Busch is drastically undervalued, Boston Beer is significantly overvalued, or a little bit of both.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: CheckFree (CKFR), Talbots (TLB), SPSS Inc (SPSS), Network Appliance (NTAP) and Pozen Inc (POZN) were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Following FiServ's (NASDAQ: FISV) acquisition of CheckFree, Raymond James cut CKFR shares to Market Perform from Strong Buy and Baird downgraded shares to Neutral from Outperform.
Talbots (NYSE: TLB) was cut to Sell from Hold at Citigroup based on valuation, continued earnings disappointments, and a lack of earnings visibility.
Cowen downgraded shares of SPSS Inc (NASDAQ: SPSS) to Underperform from Neutral citing decelerating growth and poor earnings quality.
Bear Stearns cut Network Appliance (NASDAQ: NTAP) to Underperform from Peer Perform on the negative Q1 pre-announcement. Pacific Crest downgraded shares to Sector Perform from Outperform.
After Pozen (NASDAQ: POZN) received a second approvable letter for Trexima, shares were downgraded by three firms:
To Neutral from Strong Buy at First Albany
To Hold from Buy at Jefferies and Lazard...
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Oppenheimer downgraded Applebee's (NASDAQ: APPB) to Neutral from Buy.
Gabelli downgraded Boston Beer (NYSE: SAM) to Hold from Buy.
Lehman downgraded Luxottica (NYSE: LUX) and Clorox (NYSE: CLX) to Equal Weight from Overweight.
Thomas Weisel downgraded Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) to Market Weight from Overweight.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Some of today's most notable upgrades include Qualcomm, Inc (QCOM), Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and Chevron Corp (CVX):
JP Morgan upgraded Qualcomm, Inc (NASDAQ: QCOM) to Neutral from Underweight, to reflect the company's re-accelerating business fundamentals and positive pre-announcement on Tuesday.
Friedman Billings upgraded shares of Countrywide Financial Corp (NYSE: CFC) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe the company remains among the premiere mortgage originators and will be the ultimate beneficiary of the mortgage market shakeout.
Susquehanna upgraded shares of American Eagle Outfitters Inc (NYSE: AEO) to Positive from Neutral based on a strong spring assortment and long-term earnings power from new brand concepts aerie and MARTIN+OSA.
Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) to Hold from Sell based a backlog of resources that keeps growing and increased pressure on the need for delivery.
OTHER UPGRADES:
Lehman upgraded Darden Restaurants, Inc (NYSE: DRI) to Equal-Weight from Underweight to reflect the company's strong management team and what they believe to be "very achievable" guidance.
Cadbury Schweppes plc (NYSE: CSG) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs as they believe the company may break up Nelson Peltz acquired a stake in the company.
AG Edwards upgraded El Paso Corp (NYSE: EP) to Buy from Hold with a $16 target.
Gladstone Capital Corp (NASDAQ: GLAD) was upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Wachovia.
Gabelli upgraded shares of Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) to Buy from Hold following the strong fourth quarter report.
Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV) and JetBlue Airways Corp (NASDAQ: JBLU) were upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC.
America's largest microbrewer, producing more than twenty seasonal and year-round varieties of Samuel Adams brand craft-brewed beers at facilities in Cincinnati and Boston. The company moved to boost its capacity last summer, with the purchase of a Pennsylvania brewery from Diageo (NYSE: DEO). The new facility is expected to begin producing Samuel Adams beers in the third or fourth quarter of 2008. The company also makes and distributes Twisted Tea brand malt beverages and HardCore brand ciders. Products are distributed to retailers in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific Rim. Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) is a major competitor.
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Burger King has beat Wall Street
Boston Beer
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