Drinks giant Molson Coors surpassed Wall Street estimates for first-quarter sales and profit, helped by higher prices as well as steady demand for the beer maker's brands such as Coors Light and Miller Lite.
The company also reaffirmed its full-year sales and profit forecasts.
Beer makers such as Molson Coors and peer Constellation Brands have been consistently hiking prices in order to protect their margins from rising costs of production, even as some of those expenses are beginning to drop from their peaks.
Consumers have been willing to stretch their budgets a little more to purchase Molson's products given that beers are generally considered as recession-proof.
In February, the company said it was expecting to gain more shelf space at retailers going in to the spring.
Key Quotes
"Strong Americas volume and favourable net pricing... resulted in double-digit top-line growth, while volume leverage and ongoing cost savings drove meaningful margin expansion in the quarter," said finance chief Tracey Joubert.
"We believe commentary on depletion trends in April and Q2 will be key in driving the stock reaction, given the recent slowdown in scanner data with volumes down mid-single digit percentage in the last few weeks," said Citi Research analyst Filippo Falorni.
"Molson Coors appears to be losing some market share in April," wrote Roth MKM analyst Bill Kirk in a note.
Quarterly Highlights
Its net sales for the quarter was about $2.60 billion (€2.4 billion), ahead of analysts' average estimate of $2.50 billion (€2.3 billion), according to LSEG data.
The company posted an adjusted profit of 95 cents per share, beating expectations of 74 cents.
Brand volumes in the Americas segment increased 5.3% in the first quarter, including a 5.8% increase in the US.
Molson continues to expect its 2024 net sales to rise in the low single-digit percentage range over the prior year on a constant currency basis.
