São Paulo, May 29, 2026, 16:02 BRT
- Ambev shares in São Paulo edged up late Friday, doing better than the Ibovespa, which fell.
- Goldman Sachs is sticking with a sell on the stock, but BTG Pactual moved to a buy rating this week.
- Beer pricing, premium brands and shareholder payouts are in focus for investors after a strong first quarter.
Ambev S.A. shares picked up late Friday in São Paulo, moving against a softer Brazilian benchmark. Traders checked whether the brewer still has momentum after its earnings bounce.
Fast gains in ABEV3 have traders watching the stock after a sharp repricing. Shares jumped over 15% after Ambev’s Q1 report on May 5. Now the rally is drawing more debate on whether beer-price increases can keep boosting earnings.
ABEV3 finished at 16.35 reais on B3, edging up from 16.29 reais at yesterday’s close. Shares moved in a range between 16.02 reais and 16.40 reais over the session. The ADR in New York was last seen at $3.22, a gain of roughly 0.6%.
Ibovespa slipped and hovered close to 173,900. B3 says Ibovespa tracks performance for stocks listed on its exchange.
Goldman Sachs kept its sell call on Ambev, saying price hike potential looks limited in the next few quarters. InfoMoney said Goldman sees slower beer inflation, soft demand and April beer volumes off about 5% year-on-year according to Scanntech figures.
BTG Pactual was on the buy side. Analysts Thiago Duarte and Guilherme Guttilla upgraded Ambev to buy, their first upgrade in 13 years. They lifted their target price to 20 reais from 17 reais and wrote, “thirteen years later, we are upgrading Ambev to buy,” pointing to renewed pricing power. Suno
BTG is looking at the fight between Ambev and Heineken in Brazil’s premium beer segment. The bank said Ambev, with its wider beer range from core to premium, has more ways to push through price hikes and grab revenue share. Heineken’s offering is narrower.
Ambev turned in first-quarter results with organic net revenue up 8.1% and consolidated volumes basically flat, up 0.1%. Normalized EBITDA rose 10.1%. CEO Carlos Lisboa said, “a solid start to 2026.” EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Ambev’s board signed off on a July 6 payment of the second tranche of interest on capital at 0.0755 real per share. There’s another IOC distribution of 0.0449 real per share set for payout by Dec. 31. IOC, or interest on capital, is a Brazilian shareholder cash return that gets taxed differently than a standard dividend.
Still, if Goldman is right about the risks, the trade could backfire. If Brazilian consumers weaken, beer inflation slows or weaker volumes show up, passing along price hikes could get tough. There’s also a cost question. Ambev has kept its outlook for Brazil Beer cash COGS per hectoliter, not counting marketplace products, to rise 4.5% to 7.5% this year.
Trading ran a normal schedule. According to B3’s 2026 calendar, the last market closure was for Labor Day on May 1. The next is Corpus Christi on June 4, when trading in equities and listed derivatives will pause.
Ambev is caught between two sides. Some see the brewer regaining pricing power and a premium lineup to rival Heineken. Others say the recent rally could be played out.
