Hedge Funds Watch With Interest As These Alcohol Giants Continue To Joust

According to our data collected from around 730 elite funds, a total of 41 funds reported stakes in Anheuser Busch Inbev SA (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) worth $4.34 billion in the latest round of 13F filings, up from 38 funds and $4 billion respectively a quarter earlier. Seven of Anheuser Busch’s top ten elite fund shareholders increased their positions in the company in the second quarter. Eric W. Mandelblatt‘s Soroban Capital Partners increased its equity position by 28% to 7.45 million shares and raised its stake of call options by 25% to 5.57 million underlying shares. Tom Russo’s Gardner Russo & Gardner upped its holding by 1% to 5.21 million shares, while Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group hiked its position by 50% to 3.0 million shares. Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC and J Kevin Kenny Jr’s Emerging Sovereign Group both increased their positions by 1%, to 2.10 million shares and 1.83 million shares, respectively. On the other hand, James Dinan’s York Capital Management decreased its stake by 16%, but still owned 2.28 million shares.

Analysts are divided on Anheuser Busch Inbev SA. Seven analysts have a ‘Buy’ rating on the stock, five have a ‘Sell’ rating, and six have a ‘Hold’ rating. Susquehanna has a ‘Buy’ rating with a $163 price target while Bank of America has a ‘Buy’ rating with a $132 price target. RBC Capital has a ‘Sector Perform’ rating with a $100 price target. Overall, analysts have a consensus price target of $129.64 per share, although their targets will likely come down if Anheuser Busch continues to offer more to pull off the acquisition of its resistant target.

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