As the Q2 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers in the beverages and alcohol industry, including Zevia PBC (NYSE:ZVIA) and its peers.

These companies' performance is influenced by brand strength, marketing strategies, and shifts in consumer preferences. Changing consumption patterns are particularly relevant and can be seen in the explosion of alcoholic craft beer drinks or the steady decline of non-alcoholic sugary sodas. Companies that spend on innovation to meet consumers where they are with regards to trends can reap huge demand benefits while those who ignore trends can see stagnant volumes. Finally, with the advent of the social media, the cost of starting a brand from scratch is much lower, meaning that new entrants can chip away at the market shares of established players.

The 12 beverages and alcohol stocks we track reported a mixed Q2. As a group, revenues were in line with analysts’ consensus estimates while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 13.1% below.

Stocks, especially growth stocks with cash flows further into the future, had a good end of 2023. On the other hand, this year has seen more volatile stock market swings due to mixed inflation data. However, beverages and alcohol stocks have held steady amidst all this with share prices up 4.3% on average since the latest earnings results.

Zevia PBC (NYSE:ZVIA)

With a primary focus on soda but also a presence in energy drinks and teas, Zevia (NYSE:ZVIA) is a better-for-you beverage company.

Zevia PBC reported revenues of $40.43 million, down 4.3% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 3.8%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a weaker quarter for the company with a miss of analysts’ gross margin estimates and full-year revenue guidance missing analysts’ expectations.

“We delivered net sales above our guidance in the second quarter, and scan sales reflect accelerating retail growth trends through the quarter and into July,” said Amy Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Zevia PBC achieved the highest full-year guidance raise of the whole group. Unsurprisingly, the stock is up 18.9% since reporting and currently trades at $1.07.

Read our full report on Zevia PBC here, it’s free.

Best Q2: Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH)

With its proprietary MetaPlus formula as the basis for key products, Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH) offers energy drinks that feature natural ingredients to help in fitness and weight management.

Celsius reported revenues of $402 million, up 23.4% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 2.4%. It was a very strong quarter for the company with a solid beat of analysts’ gross margin estimates and a decent beat of analysts’ earnings estimates.