Molson Coors’ profit tops Wall Street expectations
MOLSON Coors Brewing Co’s fourth-quarter profit blew past Wall Street estimates yesterday, as price increases, cost savings and an extra selling week helped offset weak sales volume.
The brewer of Molson Canadian, Coors Light and Blue Moon beers also cited easy comparisons with the year-earlier period, when the weak economy hurt sales and higher fuel and commodity costs pressured profits.
With business concentrated in the mature markets of Canada, the UK and the US, Molson is seen as having a disadvantage compared to larger rivals Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, which are strong in developing countries. Molson missed analysts’ profit estimates for the past four quarters.
In the latest quarter, Molson’s net income was $173.2m (£109m), or 95 cents per share, up from $109.8m, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, earnings were 97 cents per share, topping analysts’ average estimate of 71 cents per share.