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Cramer’s Cinco de Mayo challenge: The king of beers

Cramer’s Cinco de Mayo: Best beer stocks around!
VIDEO12:3912:39
Cramer’s Cinco de Mayo: Best beer stocks around!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo this year, Jim Cramer thought it would be the perfect time to re-rank beer companies, given that results from all of the industry's major players have now been reported.

"With Anheuser Busch InBev's gigantic $107 billion acquisition of SABMiller coming closer and closer to fruition, the competitive landscape in the beer business is about to change dramatically," the "Mad Money" host said.

Though Constellation Brands and Molson Coors have been his favorites lately, he decided to put all the big dogs to the test. He compared Constellation, Molson Coors, ABInBev and Boston Beer.





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Constellation delivered a strong quarter last month and has made a series of acquisitions that have allowed it to expand within the industry. In 2013 it snapped up the U.S. rights to Corona and Modelo for $2.9 billion. More recently, it purchased Prisoner Wine Company for $285 million, which gave it five fast growing wine brands.

Constellation also discussed potentially spinning off its Canadian wine unit in an IPO, which could help raise capital to pay down debt and possibly do more deals.

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Molson Coors also reported a strong quarter on Tuesday, which propelled the stock to new all-time highs. The real story, Cramer said, is that it will be taking full control of the MillerCoors joint venture as soon as InBev closes its acquisition on SABMiller.

"TAP has already shown that they can cut costs, which is why I think this MillerCoors deal could be transformational. More upside ahead," Cramer said.

Ever since ABInbev formally announced the SABMiller deal in November, Cramer says the stock has been hostage to regulators. Every time it looked like the merger would go through smoothly it would rally, and whenever it hit a roadblock it would plunge. At this point, most roadblocks have been cleared; that's why the stock has been able to rally.

Finally, there is Boston Beer, maker of Sam Adams. While the rest of the group has roared higher, Boston Beer has been crushed.

"This seemingly endless sell-off makes perfect sense when you look at how rapidly Boston Beer's revenue growth has slowed in recent years," Cramer said.

Ultimately, for those investors willing to pay roughly the same valuation for everything in the beer space, Cramer recommended sticking with Constellation Brands. He ranked Molson Coors in close second, given its MillerCoors acquisition.

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