MW Molson Coors' focus on pushing premium brands leads to upbeat profit outlook

By Tomi Kilgore

Beer brewer beats quarterly earnings expectations, as higher prices helped offset continued volume declines

Shares of Molson Coors Beverage Co. were headed for their best day in nearly two years in early Thursday trading, after the beer brewer beat quarterly profit and sales expectations, as higher prices helped offset continued volume declines.

The company also provided a full-year earnings outlook that was above Wall Street forecasts and guided for a return to sales growth amid plans to continue focusing on its premium brands.

"Amid a challenging macroeconomic environment, we continued to support the health of our brands globally and premiumize our business in several markets while developing plans for premiumization in the U.S. in 2025," said Chief Executive Gavin Hattersley.

The stock $(TAP)$ surged 6.9% in premarket trading, to put it on track for its biggest one-day gain since it surged 7.7% on May 2, 2023.

Sales for the fourth quarter to Dec. 31 fell 2% to $2.74 billion, but topped the FactSet consensus of $2.70 billion. The decline was due to a 6.4% drop in financial volume, which was partially offset by a 4.5% increase in price and mix.

That marked the third straight quarter of volume declines.

In the Americas, sales fell 2.6%, as volume dropped 5.9%, due to lower contract brewing volumes in the U.S., while price and sales mix increased 3.7%.

The company had announced plans in late 2023 to "aggressively premiumize" its portfolio, in both beer and "beyond beer," which includes its Simply Spiked, Topo Chico and Zoa Energy brands.

On Thursday, the company said it continued to support the health of its core brands, such as Coors Light, Miller Lite and Coors Banquet, but in the U.S. it implemented "targeted ongoing efforts around the Blue Moon family and other above-premium products to curtail the losses and change the trajectory to growth."

For 2025, the company expects sales, excluding the impact of currency moves, to increase in the low single-digit percentage range. The company targets earnings-per-share growth in the high single-digit percentage range, while the current FactSet consensus of $5.97 is just 0.2% above 2024 EPS of $5.96.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income that more than doubled to $287.8 million, or $1.39 a share, from $103.3 million, or 48 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

Underlying fourth-quarter earnings per share, which excludes nonrecurring items, rose to $1.30 from $1.19, to beat the FactSet consensus of $1.13.

The stock's rally has it heading for just the first weekly gain in four weeks, and just the second gain in 11 weeks. It has tumbled 16.3% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 index SPX has gained 1.1%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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February 13, 2025 08:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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