Two Other Companies Making Big Gains In The Wake Of The Anheuser Busch Deal (Hint: One’s A Rival Brewer)

We will now take a quick look at the hedge funds’ sentiment on the two “indirect gainers” from a potential AB InBey-SABMiller deal. There were 66 hedge funds and other investors monitored by Insider Monkey that had positions in Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE:TAP) at the end of the second quarter, compared with 62 registered at the end of the previous quarter. Similarly, the value of these positions increased to $2.12 billion from $2.07 billion over the same time span. James Dinan’s York Capital Management represents the largest equity holder of Molson Coors within our database, holding 3.21 million shares as of June 30.

Moving on to Altria Group Inc (NYSE:MO), 43 hedge funds within our database held stakes in the company at the end of the most recent quarter, five less quarter-over-quarter. By the same token, the value of hedge funds’ investments in the stock shrank to $1.22 billion from $1.32 billion. Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, one the 737 hedge funds observed by our team, boosted its stake in Altria by roughly 63% during the recent quarter, to 3.23 million shares.

To sum up, the market seems to believe that a potential deal between AB InBey and SABMiller will take place, given that the shares of the two companies have been pushed to higher levels today. To be more specific, the shares of Anheuser Busch Inbev SA (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) have gained more than 6% so far in today’s trading session, while SABMiller plc (ADR) (OTCMKTS:SBMRY)’s stock is nearly 20% in the green thus far. Given the 70% probability assigned by Vivien Azer that this deal will take place, Molson Coors and Altria Group stand poised to benefit from it in their own ways.

Disclosure: None