Strong dollar, weak beer demand hurt Molson Coors’ sales

Molson Coors and its U.S. joint venture, MillerCoors LLC, which has a brewery in Golden, have been roiled by big challenges in the mainstream beer industry, as consumers flock to craft brews and cocktails over domestic lagers. “Due to a higher tax rate and unfavorable foreign currency, our underlying after-tax income decreased 9.9%”. The Company operates in five business segments: Canada, the U.S., Central Europe, the United Kingdom, and Molson Coors global (MCI).

One of WPP’s innumerable “bespoke” agencies, Cavalry set up to handle flagship Miller Coors brand Coors Light in the US three years ago, is in doubt following Coors’ decision to review the business. Excluding special items, per-share earnings were $1.41 a share. Net sales fell 0.2 percent to $2.2bn in the second quarter. Earnings per share were $1.41.

Molson Coors said it plans to aggressively step up its advertising for the rest of this year as it looks to reverse market share losses and spur volume growth in its two largest markets – Canada and the United States. On a different note, The Company has disclosed insider buying and selling activities to the Securities Exchange, The (Controller and Chf Acct Off) of Molson Coors Brewing Co, Tabolt Brian sold 404 shares at $72.67 on June 10, 2015. The reported EPS was above estimates by $0.09 or 6.82%. With a 10-days average volume of 1.56 million shares, the number of days required to cover the short positions stand at 2.8 days.

On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of USD1.32 for the quarter. The company’s total advertising revenue declined 5.5 percent. Post opening the session at $70.21, the shares hit an intraday low of $69.47 and an intraday high of $70.25 and the price vacillated in this range throughout the day.

A recent analyst activity consisted of Nomura downgrading their Buy rating to Neutral on June 23.