Publicly traded wine companies

Our discussion of the suitability of the wine industry for IPOs left me wondering: which publicly traded wine companies are on the market today?

I did some research... if you want a slice of the U.S. wine industry, here are the stocks to own. Unfortunately, your dividends don't come with a bottle of wine.

Constellation Brands (STZ, STZ-B): as discussed in class, a major alcohol conglomerate ($37B across the two listings) and the owner of Robert Mondavi Wines. A recent $4B investment in legal marijuana means this stock is a bet on buzz, regardless of which drug produces it!

Vina Concha y Toro (VCO-OLD): de-listed from the NYSE last year, citing the expense of remaining listed. The company had a market cap of $1.5B, but only a small portion of it was listed in the U.S. to begin with. (They remain listed on the Chilean market.)

Truett-Hurst (THST): a wine producer with a market cap of just $10M. Recently completed a stock buyback, and rumored to be considering de-listing or privatizing, so probably not a great case for wine industry IPOs.

Willamette Valley Vineyards (WVVI, WVVIP): another tiny wine producer (market cap: $40M), who required some legal creativity to go public via a crowdfunding-type model (Regulation A public offering) in 1989. The NASDAQ listing followed in 1994. Owners get substantial discounts on wine (in fact, if you buy in sufficient volume, ownership could be a good deal regardless of which way the stock goes).

Crimson Wine Group (CWGL): a Napa-based wine group with a $191M market cap. Owners of Pine Ridge Vineyards, Seven Hills Winery, and others.

Diageo PLC (DEO): primarily a beer and spirits company, but with some wine business lines, including an investment in Moët Hennessy. Their $93B market cap makes them a behemoth compared to most stocks on this list... but of course very little of that is in wine.

Brown-Forman Corp. (BF.A, BF.B): best known for Jack Daniels, but also the owner of wine brands like Korbel Champagne and Sonoma-Cutrer. A market cap of $23B.

That's about all I could find, so your options are fairly limited. They do span a wide range of company sizes. Performance, however, has varied dramatically. I charted the main listing of each company against the S&P 500 over the past five years, and I'm not feeling super exciting about putting my money into wine stocks.

Sources:

• http://investsnips.com/list-of-publicly-traded-wine-and-liquor-companies/
• https://www.investopedia.com/investing/wine-stocks/
• https://www.thestreet.com/story/12844252/1/six-alcohol-industry-stocks-to-consider-for-your-stock-portfolio.html
• https://seekingalpha.com/article/4186051-recent-portfolio-sale-vina-concha-y-toro
• https://www.equities.com/news/happy-shareholders-drinking-great-wine-wvvi
• http://www.crimsonwinegroup.com/