Key Takeaways
- Anheuser-Busch InBev reported revenue up from last year despite a slight decrease in overall sales volume.
- Year-over-year sales fell in North America and the Asia Pacific region, but rose in the rest of the world.
- Revenue fell short of analysts’ estimates, while underlying profit came in better than projections.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) reported higher second-quarter sales and profit Thursday, despite lower total volume of its iconic beer brands.
The Belgian brewer behind Budweiser and Michelob reported a 2.7% year-over-year sales bump to $15.33 billion, falling short of the $15.47 billion consensus estimate of analysts polled by Visible Alpha.
Net income of $1.47 billion also missed estimates of $1.62 billion, but AB InBev’s underlying profit, which it classifies as income after accounting for “non-underlying items” and inflation, came in at $1.81 billion, above estimates of $1.68 billion. Both profit and underlying profit rose from last year.
Revenue Rises Despite Sales Volume Decrease
The company managed to report higher revenue despite an overall decrease of 0.8% in total sales volume, as a 1.3% drop in beer volume outweighed a 3.4% increase in sales of AB InBev’s non-beer products.
Revenue decreased in the company’s North American operations by 1.3%, a smaller drop than last quarter, when revenue fell 8.8% year-over-year. Revenue also fell in the Asia Pacific region, but increased in the rest of the company’s international markets.
The company’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) rose 1.4% to $60.35 about an hour before the opening bell, nearly 7% below where they started the year.