Is SAM a high-quality business?

AlphaMadera's AlphaQuality grade scores The Boston Beer Company, Inc. on six pillars — profitability, capital efficiency, balance-sheet strength, growth durability, cash generation, and shareholder yield. The composite letter grade reflects how SAM compares to a Buffett-style quality bar.

What is The Boston Beer Company, Inc.'s AlphaQuality grade?

AlphaQuality assigns a letter grade (A through F) to SAM based on a six-pillar quantitative model. The live page shows the composite grade plus each pillar's individual score with the underlying metrics.

What makes SAM a quality stock?

AlphaQuality looks at return on capital, free-cash-flow margins, debt-to-equity, revenue stability, dividend and buyback policy, and operating-margin trend. Stocks scoring well across all six pillars earn higher grades — the methodology favors compounders over cyclicals.

SAM - The Boston Beer Company, Inc.

Price: -- -- | CONSENSUS: Hold DETAILS | PRICE TARGET: $206.67 DETAILS

AlphaQuality

Quantitative six-pillar business-quality grade

Stable Earnings Power

AlphaQuality — archetype-weighted quantitative grade

B- 64.7 / 100 composite

Composite Grade

Composite of six pillars weighted for stable earnings power businesses. Purely quantitative — the six pillars score only reported financials, no analyst input.

Profitability

Weight: 20%

B- 63.7

5yr Avg ROIC 8.6% 53/100
Operating Margin Trend +1.25 pp/yr 89/100

Capital Efficiency

Weight: 15%

C+ 61.7

5yr Avg ROE 6.8% 44/100
5yr Share-Count CAGR -2.9% 94/100

Growth Quality

Weight: 15%

D+ 39.8

5yr Revenue CAGR 3.8% 51/100
5yr EPS CAGR -8.6% 3/100
Revenue-Growth Years (5) 4/5 80/100

Cash Generation

Weight: 15%

C 53.2

5yr FCF Margin 5.9% 54/100
5yr FCF/NI Conversion 0.57x 52/100

Balance Sheet

Weight: 20%

A+ 99.5

Net Debt / EBITDA -0.76x 99/100
Interest Coverage (EBIT/Int) 30.00x 100/100
Altman Z-Score 5.86 100/100

Stability

Weight: 15%

C+ 58.4

EPS Volatility (σ/μ) 0.47 34/100
Negative-Revenue Years (5) 1/5 80/100
Piotroski F-Score 7 78/100

3 of 3 gurus held; 2 added; 1 trimmed; 1 full exit.

Holders: 3
Avg Δ position: +307.2%
New buys: 0
Full exits: 1

Laffont sold -100%
Dalio increased +906%
Cooperman increased +113%

How this is calculated

AlphaQuality grades six pillars from 0-100 and weights each by archetype:

Profitability (20%) — 5yr Avg ROIC, Operating Margin Trend
Capital Efficiency (15%) — 5yr Avg ROE, 5yr Share-Count CAGR
Growth Quality (15%) — 5yr Revenue CAGR, 5yr EPS CAGR, Revenue-Growth Years (5)
Cash Generation (15%) — 5yr FCF Margin, 5yr FCF/NI Conversion
Balance Sheet (20%) — Net Debt / EBITDA, Interest Coverage (EBIT/Int), Altman Z-Score
Stability (15%) — EPS Volatility (σ/μ), Negative-Revenue Years (5), Piotroski F-Score

The six pillars read only reported financial-statement fields — no analyst targets or consensus ratings. The archetype that picks which pillar formulas apply is not fully price-free, though: it can route a company to the distressed/ungradable archetype based on price vs. its 52-week high, and beta affects one classification check. A minimum of 5 fiscal years of audited statements is required. Insurers and banks are graded on their own methodology — insurers on loss ratio, its trend and stability, and premiums-to-surplus; banks on the efficiency ratio, its trend and stability, and equity-to-assets — rather than on industrial margin/ROIC signals. Distressed, highly leveraged infrastructure, asset-manager, and other financial businesses are declared ungradable rather than forced into a numeric score.