Fevertree Pares 1,900% Gain Since IPO as Earnings Lack Sparkle

(Bloomberg) -- Fevertree Drinks Plc, which has seen a meteoric rise in its share price since going public in 2014, lost a bit of fizz on Tuesday.

Shares of the London-based maker of premium drink mixers dropped as much as 6.8 percent even after the company reported full-year earnings and sales that beat analyst estimates.

“The market has become rather accustomed to Fevertree beating expectations and upgrading guidance,” Neil Wilson, an analyst at ETX Capital, said in an email. “When results are just moderately ahead, things look a little flat.” While today’s numbers were very strong, the outlook for 2018 appears to be “relatively cautious,” spurring profit-taking, he said.

Fevertree Chief Executive Officer Tim Warrillow said in today’s statement that the company has had an “encouraging” start to the year. Last year, the company guided estimates higher multiple times, saying on several occasions that results would be “materially ahead” of consensus.

Before today, the shares had risen about 1,900 percent since listing in London in November 2014, and analysts are mostly positive on the stock, with four brokers rating it a buy or equivalent in a Bloomberg survey, while three rate it hold and none recommend selling. The stock is still up about 12 percent so far this year, compared with a 5.5 percent drop for the FTSE All-Share Index.

--With assistance from Sam Unsted

To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Pham in London at lpham14@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Beth Mellor, Angela Cullen

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