In the latest close session, Coca-Cola (KO) was up +2.26% at $81.34. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.26%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.17%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.97%.
Shares of the world's largest beverage maker witnessed a gain of 1.12% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its loss of 1.08%, and the S&P 500's gain of 0.23%.
The upcoming earnings release of Coca-Cola will be of great interest to investors. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $0.93, signifying a 6.90% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $13.05 billion, up 4.15% from the year-ago period.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $3.26 per share and a revenue of $49.33 billion, signifying shifts of +8.67% and +2.99%, respectively, from the last year.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Coca-Cola. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, there's been no change in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Coca-Cola currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Looking at valuation, Coca-Cola is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 24.4. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 16.94.
One should further note that KO currently holds a PEG ratio of 3.18. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The Beverages - Soft drinks industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.88 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 72, positioning it in the top 30% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained 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
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).