Consumer Staples

By Jacob Sonenshine Coca-Cola earnings came with a warning to companies across the market — raising prices is getting harder. For companies like Coca-Cola, America’s inflation problem wasn’t much of a problem. The company had pricing power, which meant that it could continue raising prices to offset the higher costs throughout its ecosystem. Even though January’s consumer price index was stronger than expected, it showed that the rate of inflation is still falling — and that could eventually catch up with sales growth. It may already have. Coca-Cola raised prices by about 9% in the fourth quarter of 2023, down from 13% increases in the fourth quarter of 2022, and sales growth for the quarter was even lower at 7% to $10.9 billion, down from a double-digit rate in during the same quarter in 2022, as the volume of goods sold wasn’t strong enough to offset the negative impact of […]

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript Robin Halpern (Vice President, Global Head of Investor Relations): This presentation is not intended to update, reconfirm, or otherwise provide commentary on post-third quarter trends and you’ll see the forward-looking statement in a minute. Manolo, with that, I’ll hand it over to you. Manolo Arroyo (Global Chief Marketing Officer): Thank you, Robin. Good evening, everyone. Happy to be here today. Nancy and I are going to walk you through the latest and greatest of both marketing and innovation. As we start on slide 3, let me begin with some brief context. There are a lot of things happening out there in the world and the marketing landscape is no different – it’s dynamic. And we’re delivering in this dynamic landscape. First, the global population is aging. To deliver growth to the company, many of our brands have been around for decades

The following is a summary of the The Coca-Cola Company (KO) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript: Financial Performance: Coca-Cola posted an 8% increase in comparable EPS for 2023, despite a 7% setback due to unforeseen currency fluctuations. The company saw a 12% revenue growth, driven partly by 2 points of volume growth, indicating a continued positive volume trend throughout the year. Despite rising inflation and geopolitical challenges in some markets, Coca-Cola showed strong performance across various regions, with the Coke brand value seeing a $8 billion increase. In Q4, the company grew its organic revenues by 12%, with a positive unit case growth seen in all quarters of 2023. Free cash flow showed an increase from the previous year, reaching $9.7 billion in 2023. Business Progress: Coca-Cola successfully transitioned its marketing model from a TV-centric approach to a digital focus, with digital making up about 60% of total media spending.

The latest earnings reports from Coca Cola Company (NYSE:KO) and Pepsi Co (NASDAQ:PEP) reflected a resilientUS consumer, however with changing habits. As for Coca Cola, its earnings were in line with analyst estimates while sales surpassed analyst expectations. Pepsi Is Facing A Slowdown Across Categories Pepsi reported its North America sales slipped about 3.5% during the last quarter of 2023 as consumers were put off by higher prices. In addition to falling North America sales, global revenues were down 0.5% YoY to $27.85 billion. In response, Pepsi lowered its guidance but remained optimistic about 2024 due to optimizing its portfolio by no longer selling unprofitable brands. Coca Cola’s Fourth Quarter Highlights For the three months ended on December 31st, Coca Cola reported that revenue grew 7% to $10.85 billion, surpassing LSEG’s estimate of $10.68 billion. Fourth quarter net income dropped from $2.03 billion, or 47 cents per share Coca Cola

Coca-Cola’s (KO) latest financial results and “strong” guidance suggest that it continues to be best placed among the large soda makers headed into 2024, Wedbush Securities said Wednesday. The soft drinks company delivered its third straight year of above-algorithm top-line and earnings growth, Wedbush analysts Gerald Pascarelli and Antoine Legault said in a note. The company’s 2024 outlook was “strong,” indicating another year of earnings and sales growth meeting or surpassing the high-end of long-term targets, the analysts said. Wedbush increased its price target on the Coca-Cola stock to $68 from $66 while reiterating its outperform rating.

Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) Stock Analyst Ratings Date Upside/Downside Analyst Firm Price Target Change Rating Change Previous / Current Rating 02/14/2024 11.63% JP Morgan $64 → $66 Maintains Overweight 01/16/2024 11.63% Barclays $60 → $66 Maintains Overweight 11/13/2023 8.25% Jefferies → $64 Initiates Coverage On → Hold 10/25/2023 4.86% JP Morgan $59 → $62 Maintains Overweight 10/25/2023 9.94% Morgan Stanley $70 → $65 Maintains Overweight 10/17/2023 1.48% B of A Securities $74 → $60 Maintains Buy 10/16/2023 -0.21% JP Morgan $71 → $59 Maintains Overweight 10/12/2023 -0.21% Barclays $70 → $59 Maintains Overweight 10/11/2023 9.94% Citigroup $74 → $65 Maintains Buy 07/28/2023 18.39% Barclays $69 → $70 Maintains Overweight 07/27/2023 18.39% Morgan Stanley $70 → $70 Reiterates Overweight → Overweight 07/27/2023 18.39% RBC Capital $69 → $70 Maintains Outperform 07/27/2023 20.08% JP Morgan $67 → $71 Maintains Overweight 07/27/2023 20.08% Wedbush $70 → $71 Maintains Outperform 07/20/2023 16.7% Barclays $73 →

Beverage giant increased its yield advantage over rival PepsiCo Shares of Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO) gained Thursday, after the beverage giant raised its dividend, effectively increasing its yield advantage over rival PepsiCo Inc. Coca-Cola said it is raising its quarterly dividend by 5.4%, to 48.5 cents a share, from 46 cents a share. Shareholders of record on March 15 will receive the new dividend on April 1.