Anheuser-Busch's Stock Drops After RBC Capital Turns Bearish

Shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. dropped 1.7% in premarket trade Wednesday, after RBC Capital turned bearish on the beer and beverage giant, citing concerns over the SABMiller PLC acquisition. Analyst James Edwardes Jones cut his rating to underperform from sector perform. Jones said he believes Anheuser-Busch will deliver on the synergies it has targeted from the SABMiller deal, and more, but he expects all the benefits will be realized by SABMiller's shareholders, not Anheuser-Busch's. "Thus while we expect it to do its normal awesome job in extracting synergies from SABMiller, we do not expect significant margin accretion over and above that, as we don't believe [Anheuser-Busch's] competitive position will have been materially enhanced," Jones wrote in a note to clients. "We believe those 'normal' synergies are fully anticipated by investors." The stock has gained 2.9% year to date through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 has advanced 2.2%.