Tag - SAM

After the closing bell, The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE: SAM) executives raised their top end full-year earnings guidance during a conference call. The beer maker now expects earnings in the range of $1.42 to $1.70 per share for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with previous guidance of $1.42 to $1.55., CFO Bill Ulrich said during the call. CEO Martin Roper said the wide range of guidance is because “there are so many moving pieces right now.”

“There are a number of unknowns and we felt that it was prudent to widen the range if everything goes – so to speak – our way,” Ulrich said. “It may be one way, and if things are more conservative it may be the other way.”

The company, which makes beer under the Samuel Adams and Twisted Tea brands, does not want to project growth further into the future.

“We do feel good about where we are right now, but none of us really knows what the future holds,” Roper said. “We would not want that to lead anyone astray by predicting future years.”

During afternoon trading, Boston Beer reported second-quarter revenue of $92.9 million, compared with $79.3 million in the same period of 2006. For the three months ended June 30, the beer maker recorded a profit of $6.8 million, or $0.48 per share, down from $8 million, or $0.57 a share, during the equivalent months of 2006.

Boston Beer’s earnings were below expectations of $0.58 per share because its results took into account a $3.4 million, or $0.14 per share, write-off for a new brewery project in Freetown, Mass.

The company increased its net revenue per barrel 2% through pricing initiatives, Roper said. Also, the company’s effective tax rate during the second quarter increased to 42.4% from 39.4%, he said.

The company’s profits were harmed by higher barley, hops, packaging, glass, freight and utilities costs, Urich said in a statement. Still, Roper said in a release, “We currently expect that, if our volume gains continue for the rest of the year, we will be able to meet or even exceed our previously communicated earnings goals even after including the asset write-off of brewery costs we took in the second quarter.”