| Americans are not consuming less beer. In April, total domestic beer production was 13.1% higher than a year prior. Almost all of that increase was due to sales of keg beer, used primarily by bars and restaurants that were closed the previous year. In short, sales of bottled and canned beer are flat and bar sales are back to normal. Boston Beer was betting on its hard seltzer brand, Truly, to have a breakout quarter. That didn't happen. In fact, just the opposite occurred. Jim Koch did not mince words in describing the impact that had on the company's performance: "We overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter and the demand for Truly, which negatively impacted our volume and earnings for the quarter and our estimates for the remainder of the year." It isn't just Boston Beer that overestimated the hard seltzer market. Earlier this month, Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP) discontinued sales of its hard seltzer product, too. According to both companies, demand for hard seltzer has cooled off much quicker than anticipated. Now, they are stuck with a lot of unsold inventory that nobody wants to buy. My guess is there will be a sale on hard seltzer coming to a liquor store near you very soon. Clawing Back Most of the projections made for sales of hard seltzer this year were based on the popularity of White Claw last year. White Claw is a hard seltzer with fruity flavors that is especially popular during the hot summer months. But now that restaurants and bars are back open, consumer tastes are reverting to more traditional indoor alcoholic beverages. Mixed drinks are in and hard seltzers are out. Even after last week's big price drop, SAM is valued at roughly 30 times forward earnings. That's more than double the same multiple for Molson Coors and a third higher than the 22 multiple for Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD). That does necessarily mean the stock price has a lot further to fall. With a short interest ratio of 14%, SAM should appeal to the meme stock traders that have driven up GameStop (NYSE: GME) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) to unimaginable heights. The meme stock traders look for stocks with a lot of short interest (sales sold short) so they can induce a short squeeze. A short interest ratio above 10% is considered high and makes a stock vulnerable to a short squeeze. If that happens, SAM could quickly soar back above $1,000. In fact, it could go a lot higher than that. Three months ago, AMC shot up 600% in just eight weeks. AMC has a short interest ratio of 15%, about the same as SAM. That said, I don't recommend making money in the stock market by trying to anticipate the whims of meme stock traders. If your timing is just a little bit off, you could be the one left holding the bag. For that reason, I suggest instead that you consider a more reliable system for profiting from the stock market's sometimes irrational behavior. I'm referring to high-quality dividend stocks. Dividend-payers are time-proven vehicles for long-term wealth building, but they're also safe havens because companies with robust dividends boast the strongest fundamentals. For our list of the best high-yielders, click here. |
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