SAM - Boston Beer upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse on seltzer potential

Rob Kim/Getty Images Entertainment Credit Suisse analyst Kaumil Gajrawala upgrades Boston Beer (SAM) to Outperform from Neutral as he sees the company the best positioned to navigate the "new rules" of the hard seltzer category. While overall hard seltzer growth is slowing, it's growing in triple digits when excluding declines at market leader White Claw. SAM's Truly brand contributed six percentage points to industry growth of +5pp in May 2021, Gajrawala said. Also notes that there's too much focus on how large seltzer can be as a percentage of U.S. beer sales. "We think that is wrong metric given that 50% of share is gained from wine and spirits," Gajrawala writes in a note to clients. He also expects a slowdown in topline to support recovery in gross margin. "That inflection point is near, as capacity capability meets tempering, forecastable demand." Expects significant demand for bar/restaurants to add seltzer, draft,

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Boston Beer upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse on seltzer potential