Why Boston Beer Shares Are Falling Today

Boston Beer Co Inc SAM is trading lower Thursday after the company announced it withdrew its 2021 financial guidance.

Boston Beer said the market for hard seltzer products has continued to experience decelerating growth trends.

"While demand for the company's hard seltzer products continues to grow at faster than category rates in measured off-premise channels, we believe there will be continuing uncertainty about hard seltzer demand trends for the remainder of 2021," the company said.

Boston Beer now expects to incur hard seltzer-related inventory write-offs, shortfall fees and other costs.

Full-year 2021 diluted earnings per share is expected to fall below the previously-reported earnings estimate of $18 per share to $22 per share.

Analyst Assessment: Credit Suisse and RBC Capital lowered price targets on the stock following the news:

• Credit Suisse analyst Kaumil Gajrawala maintained Boston Beer with an Outperform rating and lowered the price target from $1,281 to $965.
• RBC Capital analyst Nik Modi maintained Boston Beer with an Outperform rating and lowered the price target from $1,134 to $627.

SAM Price Action: Boston Beer is making a new 52-week low in trading today.

The stock was down 8.52% at $511.74 at time of publication.

Photo: Mike Mozart from Flickr.