4. The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 32
The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) produces and sells alcoholic beverages primarily in the United States. The company’s flagship beer is the Samuel Adams Boston Lager and it sells its beverages to a network of approximately 400 wholesalers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, the Pacific Rim, Mexico, and Central and South America.
On February 16, 2022, Jim Koch, the chairman and founder of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM), shared that he is targeting full-year volume growth between 4% and 10% for the fiscal year 2022 as the company’s inventory levels recover. Positive outlooks and an ambitious FY 2022 guidance place The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) among the 5 best whiskey and alcohol stocks to buy in 2022.
Shortly after the company’s earnings release, on April 22, Credit Suisse analyst Kaumil Gajrawala cut his price target on The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) to $620 from $670 but reiterated an Outperform rating on the shares. The analyst contended that the company reported positive results for the quarter after a series of weak quarters and believes that the company’s maintained EPS and revenue guidance signals sustainable growth.
The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) is being closely watched by elite hedge funds. At the end of Q4 2021, 32 hedge funds held long positions in The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM). The total stakes of these funds amounted to $454.15 million, up from $237.87 million in the previous quarter with 19 positions. The hedge fund sentiment for the stock is positive.
Durable Capital Partners is the most prominent shareholder in The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) as of the end of this March. The fund’s stakes were valued at $55.37 million which represents 0.48% of its 13F portfolio.
Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, shared its views on The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) in its third-quarter 2021 investor letter. Here is what experts at Artisan said:
“We ended our campaigns in Boston Beer Company. Boston Beer Company sells a focused portfolio of alcoholic beverage brands. In recent years, the company has emerged as one of the leaders in the hard seltzer category, which has grown over 150% in each of the past three years (2018-2020). Boston Beer’s Truly brand, the second-largest seller of hard seltzer, has benefited from this growth and was core to our investment thesis. However, the hard seltzer category’s growth has recently slowed to single digits, falling short of high investor expectations and pressuring Boston Beer’s earnings upside. Truly’s growth was core to our investment thesis, and a recovery is uncertain; thus, we ended our investment campaign.”
