Bud Light Boycott Can’t Douse Anheuser-Busch InBev

Bud Light sales might never fully regain the ground they have lost to competitors. That doesn’t mean Anheuser-Busch InBev BUD 0.55%increase; green up pointing triangle, and its stock, can’t ultimately recover from the fracas. 

The global brewer, which accounts for around one of every four beers sold worldwide, on Thursday posted surprisingly strong results despite cratering Bud Light sales. Revenue in the second quarter rose 7.2% from a year earlier—much faster than the 4.1% growth that analysts were predicting, according to consensus estimates from Visible Alpha. 

Amid the high emotion in the U.S. over the Bud Light controversy, which arose in early April following a social-media collaboration with a transgender influencer, investors seem to have forgotten just how big and global the brand’s Belgian parent company really is. At its lows in late May, AB InBev’s stock was down around 20% from end-March. But it has since recovered some of that ground and the shares were up around 2% in early trading on Thursday. 

True, AB InBev’s North America organic sales by beer volume fell 14.1% on-year because of the boycott. Global volumes, however, fell just 1.4%. In the Asia Pacific region, where the company owns brands such as Harbin Beer in China, volumes were up 9.5%. Revenue rose in more than 85% of the company’s global markets, the company said.