Molson Coors Brewing Company Stock Upgraded (TAP)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE:TAP) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• TAP's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 1.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 7.0%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 52.99% to $347.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, MOLSON COORS BREWING CO has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 0.86%.
• The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.63, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Despite the fact that TAP's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.61, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs.
• Compared to where it was 12 months ago, the stock is up, but it has so far lagged the appreciation in the S&P 500. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.

Molson Coors Brewing Company manufactures and sells beer and other beverage products. The company has a P/E ratio of 11.8, equal to the average food & beverage industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Molson Coors Brewing has a market cap of $6.69 billion and is part of the consumer goods sector and food & beverage industry. Shares are down 1.4% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full Molson Coors Brewing Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

For more information on Molson Coors Brewing Company click any of the following:

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• Molson Coors Brewing Company Earnings

• Molson Coors Brewing Company Ratio Comparison

• Molson Coors Brewing Company Growth Rates

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• Molson Coors Brewing Company Cash Flow

• Molson Coors Brewing Company Income Statement