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Constellation's shares, up around 50 percent last year, fell 2.4
percent in premarket trading despite the company's announcement
of a $3 billion share buyback program and a rise in its
full-year profit forecast.
Beer sales, which account for more than half of the company's
total sales, rose 8 percent in the quarter. Depletions, or
distributor shipments to retail customers, rose 9.1 percent due
to the Labor Day and Thanksgiving holidays in the quarter.
But wine and spirit sales fell 10.3 percent, hit by a 2.5
percent fall in depletion volumes. The drop in sales also
reflect the divestiture of the company's Canadian wine business
in December 2016.
The company said it now expects sales of wine and spirits, which
include Robert Mondavi wines and Svedka Vodka, to be at the
lower end of a prior forecast that already called for a decline
of 4-6 percent for the full-year.
Net income rose to $491.1 million, or $2.44 per share, in the
third quarter ended Nov. 30, from $405.9 million, or $1.98 per
share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items the company earned $2.00 per share,
beating analysts' average estimate of $1.89 per share.
Net sales fell marginally to $1.80 billion from $1.81 billion.
The company also raised its full-year profit forecast to
$8.40-$8.50 per share. Analysts were expecting $8.43.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina
D'Couto and Patrick Graham)
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