BUD -- May 26, 2024

Locator: 47186BUD.

Bud Lite, Mulvaney.

Everything you need to know -- August 14, 2023 -- them.

I don't recall if I ever posted my thoughts on the Bud Lite / Mulvaney controversy. Oh, I know I wrote a lot about it and I know I shared some thoughts, but as usual, I flip-flopped but at the end-of-the-day I was pretty sure how to best handle it. But now it's 20-20 hindsight.

But I was curious how the story is being reported now.

This is from about a month ago, Newsweek. When I was reading Newsweek decades ago, I considered it fairly balanced; I guess some folks consider it more liberal now -- whatever that means. The more reading I do, the more problems I have with labels. But, I digress.

So, this is from about a month ago. Link here.

For me, it was only an investment story. Wondering whether I should invest in BUD at the time.

I never did because I have an investing plan and I am sticking to it. BUD was never in my portfolio and there was no special / great opportunity to invest in BUD based on what I read, regardless of the Mulvaney dip.

So, I kept to may plan and did not invest in BUD, though I thought about it when BUD was in the mid-50s.

So, how has BUD done?

I think we will first look at the "5-year" chart; the "max" becomes ancient history for most investors, but the five-year chart gives an investor an idea of where we've been and where we are: the five-year chart for BUD is atrocious. At a high of 100 at the start of the period, dropped to 40 in March, 2020 -- exactly when the lockdowns began. 

Look at the graph below, and then I'll ask a question:

Quick: when did the Mulvaney controversy begin?

It looks like it must have happened around August 2, 2019. Nope. February, 2020? Nope. June 4, 2021? Nope. August 12, 2022? Nope. Bottom line. BUD was in trouble long before Mulvaney and however well/bad BUD is doing today is in the eye of the beholder.

However, for investors, when thinking about an equity, I recommend looking at the five-year chart and the one-year chart after one has spent a few hours "looking at the company" from an investment point of view. 

So, look at the one-year chart:

At one year, it's done about as well as BRK-B. At three months, it's done way better than BRK-B.

From May, 2023, through October, 2023, one could have bought BUD in the mid-50s. Today, BUD is trading around $65. In one year, the stock has appreciated 20% and pays almost 3%. 

I think most of us would be delighted with a 20% return y/y and a 3% dividend.

For Mulvaney, from the linked article:

 

And then this:

 

Hindsight is 20-20, but of all the choices Anheuser-Busch had once the controversy began, Anheuser-Busch made absolutely the worse choice. 

Oh, when did the controversy begin?

*********************
The Book Page 

The book for the week: Charlie Chaplin vs America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided, Scott Eyman, c. 2023.

Background: The Hollywood Reporter, April 2, 2015, link here. 

• b. 1889, England
• 1947, age 58, famous and loved by many; sails to England to visit his home
• was unaware of the storm clouds; never, never thought the US would renege on its promise of safe return
  
• en route on the Queen Elizabeth learns that the US will not allow him to return to the US
• morality issues (politics and sex)
• happily married to Oona, with four children; he was 54 when he married her, age 18
  
• he would spend the rest of his life with Oona, died in 1991, age 66
  
• settles in Switzerland
• 1972: the US allows Chaplin to return to the United States to attend the "Oscars" to accept an honorary statuette, age 83
• d. 1977 

So, going into the 2024 elections ....