Molson’s big buy starts to pay off

Article Excerpt

MOLSON COORS BREWING CO. $89 (New York symbol TAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 215.3 million; Market cap: $19.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.molsoncoors. com) is the world’s third-largest brewer. Its main brands include Molson Canadian (Canada), Coors Light (the U.S.) and Carling (the U.K.). In October 2016, Molson Coors acquired the remaining 58% of the MillerCoors brewing joint venture from SABMiller for $12 billion. It now owns 100% of this business. MillerCoors was formed in 2008, when Molson and SABMiller combined their U.S. brewing operations. Thanks to savings from that purchase, Molson’s earnings per share in the second quarter of 2017 rose 3.1%, to $1.66 from $1.61 a year earlier. Sales fell 0.6%, to $3.09 billion from $3.11 billion. If you disregard currency rates, sales improved 1.3%. Molson Coors will likely earn $6.49 a share for all of 2017, and the stock trades at 13.7 times that estimate. Molson Coors is a buy. buy…