Financial Contrast: Boston Beer (NYSE:SAM) and Coca-Cola Consolidated (NASDAQ:COKE)

Coca-Cola Consolidated (NASDAQ:COKE) and Boston Beer (NYSE:SAM) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Coca-Cola Consolidated and Boston Beer, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coca-Cola Consolidated	0	0	1	0	3.00
Boston Beer	2	9	1	0	1.92

Boston Beer has a consensus target price of $205.09, suggesting a potential upside of 16.16%. Given Boston Beer’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Boston Beer is more favorable than Coca-Cola Consolidated.

Profitability

This table compares Coca-Cola Consolidated and Boston Beer’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coca-Cola Consolidated	7.15%	-1,041.59%	13.71%
Boston Beer	-3.42%	9.99%	6.48%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

48.2% of Coca-Cola Consolidated shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.1% of Boston Beer shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Coca-Cola Consolidated shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 27.4% of Boston Beer shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Coca-Cola Consolidated and Boston Beer”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coca-Cola Consolidated	$7.23 billion	1.80	$570.58 million	$7.54	25.90
Boston Beer	$2.09 billion	0.88	$108.47 million	($6.79)	-26.00

Coca-Cola Consolidated has higher revenue and earnings than Boston Beer. Boston Beer is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Coca-Cola Consolidated, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Coca-Cola Consolidated has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Boston Beer has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Coca-Cola Consolidated beats Boston Beer on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coca-Cola Consolidated

Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes nonalcoholic beverages primarily products of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States. The company offers sparkling beverages; and still beverages, including energy products, as well as noncarbonated beverages comprising bottled water, ready to drink coffee and tea, enhanced water, juices, and sports drinks. It also sells its products to other Coca-Cola bottlers; and post-mix products that are dispensed through equipment, which mixes the fountain syrups with carbonated or still water enabling fountain retailers to sell finished products to consumers in cups or glasses. In addition, the company manufactures and distributes various other beverage brands that include Dr Pepper and Monster Energy. It sells and distributes its products directly to grocery stores, mass merchandise stores, club stores, convenience stores, and drug stores; and restaurants, schools, amusement parks, and recreational facilities, as well as through vending machine outlets. The company was formerly known as Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated and changed its name to Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. in January 2019. Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About Boston Beer

The Boston Beer Company, Inc produces and sells alcohol beverages primarily in the United States. The company's flagship beer is Samuel Adams Boston Lager. It offers various beers, hard ciders, flavored malt beverages, and hard seltzers under the Samuel Adams, Twisted Tea, Truly, Angry Orchard, Dogfish Head, Angel City, and Coney Island brand names. The company markets and sells its products to a network wholesaler in the United States, as well as wholesalers, importers, or other agencies that in turn sell to retailers, such as grocery stores, club stores, convenience stores, liquor stores, bars, restaurants, stadiums, and other e-commerce retail outlets. It sells its products in Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, the Pacific Rim, Mexico, and Central and South America. The Boston Beer Company, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.