Profits and Sales Rise at Molson Coors Fourth-quarter profit at the Molson Coors Brewing Company beat Wall Street estimates, as price increases, cost savings and an extra selling week helped offset weak sales volume. Shares of the brewer, whose brands include Molson Canadian, Coors Light and Blue Moon, rose $1.24, or 2.83 percent, to $45.10 on Thursday. The company also cited easy comparisons with the year-earlier period, when the weak economy hurt sales and higher fuel and commodity costs pressured profits. A Stifel Nicolaus analyst, Mark Swartzberg, pointed to a bigger-than-expected margin for MillerCoors, Molson's United States joint venture with SABMiller, and lower spending in the company's Canada, Britain and international units. "We take the results as another indicator U.S. brewer profitability is improving," Mr. Swartzberg said in a research note. In the United States, lingering unemployment, especially among core male beer drinkers, has led to weak volumes and heavy promotions. That has pressured profits. In the fourth quarter, Molson's net income rose to $173.2 million, or 95 cents a share, from $109.8 million or 58 cents a share in the period a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings were 97 cents a share, topping analysts" average estimate of 71 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Net sales increased 12.2 percent, to $937.3 million, also topping Wall Street's estimate of $924.5 million.