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Boston Beer (NYSE: SAM) reported earnings after the bell today. While it seems like the stock should be lower because the company missed EPS estimates (reported 46 cents per share vs. 58 cents per share consensus), there's much more to the story than first meets the eye.

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.

Boston Beer (SAM) posts frothy earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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