Anheuser-Busch InBev reveals Q4 profit as US sales decline

Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) stock moves lower Thursday morning — from pre-market trading and into the trading day — after the Budweiser-parent company saw fourth-quarter profitability despite mixed earnings results. AB InBev reported a revenue miss of $14.7 billion — which rose on recent price hikes — while adjusted earnings per share eked out gains of $0.82.

Yahoo Finance Retail Reporter Brooke DiPalma highlights the beer distributor's performance, breaking down its US sales and volume figures.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

BRAD SMITH: Another trending ticker that we're watching this morning. Hiking beer prices might be paying off for Anheuser-Busch. The company saw revenue rise in 2023 despite an overall sales decline. Revenue in the US, however, declined by 17% due in large part to some of the Bud Light boycotts. Joining us now with more, we've got Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma. Hey, Brooke.

BROOKE DIPALMA: Good morning, Brad. Good morning, Seana. I mean, certainly, what a year for Anheuser-Busch. The company did post a profit in Q4 and hit record revenue for the full year. But let's take a closer look at how the company shaped up in the last quarter of 2023.

Quarterly revenue did increase to $14.47 billion, slightly below what the Street expected due to those higher prices that were largely offset by the performance here in the US that are continuing to lag shaping into 2024 as Bud Light tries to turn that corner following the boycott that lasted throughout 2023. And believe it or not, that was more than 11 months ago come next week. And here in the US, we did see volumes drop. We saw volume decline 2.6%.

That was more or rather overall volume decline 2.6% last quarter compared with the 1.48% drop that Wall Street did expect. And here in the US, revenue did come in lower, down 17.3% last quarter as sales to retailers, well, they dropped as well, down 12.1% due to that poor performance of Bud Light. And sales to retailers is something that we'll continue to watch, especially as these retailers shape up their shelves come March and April for that critical May, June, July summer months that are so important for the beer industry.

On the call, AB InBev CEO really acknowledging this saying that it was a challenging year for the business here in the US. He did say that it continued to improve gradually from May to the most recent weeks in February. And they ended 2023 with their market share at 38.3% here in the US. All this while that strike was averted yesterday evening. They did reach a tentative agreement with the Teamsters.