Yahoo Finance Coca-Cola (KO) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Coca-Cola (KO) closed at $64.30, marking a +0.36% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.99%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.61%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.06%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest beverage maker had lost 2.27% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 4.71% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.24% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Coca-Cola as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.68, unchanged from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $10.83 billion, up 6.92% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.47 per share and revenue of $42.11 billion, which would represent changes of +6.47% and +8.94%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Coca-Cola. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.51% higher. Coca-Cola is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Coca-Cola has a Forward P/E ratio of 25.99 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 20.89, which means Coca-Cola is trading at a premium to the group.
Also, we should mention that KO has a PEG ratio of 3.72. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Beverages - Soft drinks industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.85 as of yesterday's close.
The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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CocaCola Company The (KO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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