Fever-Tree Drinks, which has seen a meteoric rise in its share price since going public in 2014, lost a bit of fizz on Tuesday.
Shares of the London-based maker of premium drink mixers dropped as much as 6.8% even after the company reported full-year earnings and sales that beat analyst estimates.
“The market has become rather accustomed to Fever-Tree beating expectations and upgrading guidance,” Neil Wilson, an analyst at ETX Capital, said in an email.
“When results are just moderately ahead, things look a little flat.” While today’s numbers were very strong, the outlook for 2018 appears to be “relatively cautious,” spurring profit-taking, he said.
'Encouraging Start'
Fever-Tree Chief Executive Officer Tim Warrillow said in today’s statement that the company has had an “encouraging” start to the year.
Last year, the company guided estimates higher multiple times, saying on several occasions that results would be “materially ahead” of consensus.
Before today, the shares had risen about 1,900% since listing in London in November 2014, and analysts are mostly positive on the stock, with four brokers rating it a buy or equivalent in a Bloomberg survey, while three rate it hold and none recommend selling.
The stock is still up about 12% so far this year, compared with a 5.5% drop for the FTSE All-Share Index.
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