Diageo targets healthy consumers

Article Excerpt

DIAGEO PLC ADRs $113 (New York symbol DEO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; ADRs outstanding: 630.0 million; Market cap: $71.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.6; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.diageo.com) is the world’s largest premium alcoholic beverage company. Its major brands include Guinness stout, Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker whisky and Captain Morgan rum. The U.K.-based company recently paid an undisclosed sum for a minority stake in Seedlip. That private firm makes distilled non-alcoholic spirits— without sugar or artificial sweeteners and colouring. This investment should help Diageo profit as healthconscious consumers drink less alcohol. It could also help offset any drop in sales of whisky to Europe because of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union. Diageo is still a hold. hold…