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 %.