Alcohol beverage makers: 1 buy & 1 hold

Article Excerpt

DIAGEO PLC ADR $142 (New York symbol DEO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; ADRs outstanding: 615.4 million; Market cap: $87.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.3; Dividend yield: 2.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.diageo.com) is a leading maker of premium alcoholic beverages. Its main brands include Guinness beer, Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker scotch, Bailey’s liqueur and Captain Morgan rum. Diageo is now entertaining offers for what it sees as its non-core U.S. brands such as Myer’s rum, Popov vodka, Romana Sambuca and Goldschlager. The company hopes to sell all the brands in one transaction for as much as $1 billion. It would then be free to focus on Johnnie Walker and its other major brands. Meantime, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018, Diageo’s sales rose 0.9%, to 12.16 billion pounds ($16.4 billion U.S.) from 12.05 billion pounds a year earlier. Unfavourable exchange rates offset higher volumes and selling prices. Earnings rose 8.1% to 2.95 billion pounds ($4.0 billion U.S.), or $6.40 per ADR, from 2.73…