Hard Seltzer Makes Boston Beer a Buy Again, Almost
In retrospect, investors spent the last few months focused on the wrong thing. Rather than trying to figure out when the first mainstream beverage company might finally launch a cannabis-infused drink, we should have been focused on the newest beverage mania that actually was taking shape. A whole (relatively) new category of alcoholic beverages has taken that more adult piece of the beverage spectrum by storm, and brewer Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) just secured its fourth upgrade in less than a month because of its stake in the nascent market.
All of them were a little late to the party, to be fair. Boston Beer shares have been advancing all year, up 62% since the end of 2018, largely on the heels of incredible demand for its Truly brand of hard seltzers. And although rival Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) controls twice as much share of the hard seltzer market with its White Claw brand and drove 289% growth in sales volume last year, Boston Beer's Truly line of these seltzers saw 278% growth in volume in 2018.
The stock was performing well then, too. The end result is a valuation most investors might not like. Shares are priced at nearly 35 times next year's expected earnings.
Source Fool.com
