What Happened?
Shares of beer powerhouse Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD) fell 12% in the afternoon session after the company reported second-quarter results that fell short of market expectations, driven by weak demand in key international markets. The world's largest brewer announced that its total sales volume decreased by 1.9%, with beer volume specifically dropping 2.2%, a larger decline than analysts anticipated. The company’s revenue landed at $15.0 billion, which missed consensus estimates. The performance stemmed largely from significant sales drops in key international markets. In China, revenue fell 6% as volumes decreased by over 7%, while in Brazil, volumes plunged by more than 6.5%. The disappointing report intensified investor concerns about shifting consumer preferences away from traditional beer products.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Anheuser-Busch? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Anheuser-Busch’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 4 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for Anheuser-Busch and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 5 months ago when the stock gained 9.1% on the news that the company reported decent fourth-quarter results, with EPS slightly exceeding analysts' expectations. However, revenue grew just 3.4% , falling short of estimates due to a modest decline in total volume, led by weakness in China and Argentina. Looking ahead, the company expects EBITDA growth of 4-8% in 2025, which is in line with its medium-term outlook. Overall, the quarter showed mixed results: while profitability improved, weaker sales volumes and cautious guidance suggest there is still room for improvement.
Anheuser-Busch is up 16.7% since the beginning of the year, but at $58.29 per share, it is still trading 18.7% below its 52-week high of $71.70 from June 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Anheuser-Busch’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,071.
Today’s young investors won’t have read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.