The largest U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. announced on October 22 its third quarter profit rose 6.8 % as consumers bought more of the company's higher-end products such as Michelob beer. Products like Michelob Ultra, a low-carbohydrate beer, have allowed Anheuser-Busch to consistently increase its profits in an industry suffering from sluggish volume growth worldwide.

The company reported third-quarter profit of $664 million, or 80 cents a share. This compares to earnings of $622 million, or 71 cents a share, in the same period last year. ”Anheuser-Busch achieved its 20th consecutive quarter of solid double-digit earnings per share growth. The beer pricing environment remains favorable and our market share performance has been strong,” said Patrick Stokes, president and chief executive officer.

Net sales, which includes excise taxes, rose to $3.88 billion from $3.71 billion. Gross sales, which exclude the effect of excise taxes, rose to $4.47 billion from $4.27 billion. "Boring and good," Legg Mason analyst Mark Swartzberg said of the brewer's results. "They were in line with earnings per share but their volume growth was a little bit better than expected."

The company's total volume of beer sold rose 2.1 % to 34.7 million barrels in the third quarter. Anheuser-Busch, which raised prices this month in markets representing about 40 % of its volume, said its earnings per share growth target for 2004 is 12 %. "The beer pricing environment remains favorable and our market share performance has been strong," Chief Executive Patrick Stokes said in a statement.

The company also reaffirmed its 2003 earnings per share growth target of 12 % to 13 %.

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