Constellation's Acquisitions Help Lift Top, Bottom Lines

By Austen Hufford 

Constellation Brands Inc. on Thursday posted higher profit and revenue as a number of acquisitions continued to boost the beer and wine distributor.

Shares, which have fallen 5.1% in the past three months, climbed 1.2% in premarket trading.

Constellation Brands has had a purchasing spate recently. In the quarter it closed its $285 million acquisition of Prisoner Wine Co. The Victor, N.Y., company in August paid about $315 million for Meiomi, a Pinot Noir wine brand, and in November agreed to pay $1 billion for Ballast Point Brewing Co., the San Diego producer of Sculpin IPA. Thursday, Constellation said the Ballast brand continues to have "outstanding" levels of growth.

In the latest quarter, Constellation's net beer sales rose 19% with help from Ballast, along with volume growth and higher prices. Constellation became the third-largest beer company by volume in the U.S. in 2013 after acquiring rights to Corona and Modelo from Anheuser-Busch InBev NV.

The Meiomi deal helped its wine and spirits segment grow 8%.

Constellation reaffirmed its guidance, saying it expects adjusted per-share earnings for the year ending in February of between $6.05 and $6.35. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected $6.27.

For the quarter ended in May, Constellation reported a profit of $318.3 million, or $1.55 a share, up from a profit of $238.6 million, or $1.18 a share a year earlier. Revenue grew 15% to $1.87 billion. Adjusted earnings were $1.54 a share.

Analysts had expected earnings of $1.52 a share on $1.83 billion in sales.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 30, 2016 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

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