SAMThe Boston Beer Company, Inc.
Is the business good?
The checks split: 7 of 9 health tests passed, but margins compressing.
High fundamental quality. Nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year health from the filings.
Operating margin has narrowed over the past few years, profitability per dollar of sales is eroding.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is SAM?
The Boston Beer Company, Inc. earns −18% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 27 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- −5.1%
Operating margin · Beverages - Brewers median 17% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Share count, year on year
- −5.6%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
- Gross margin
- 49%
Gross margin
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 14% |
| FY2022 | 4.3% |
| FY2023 | 5.0% |
| FY2024 | 3.8% |
| FY2025 | 7.4% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 49%
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- −5.1%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- −3.8%
- Free cash flow margin
- 9.7%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $1.91B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $185M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- −$73M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- −18%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.