Where Coca-Cola Is Winning: A Deep Dive Into Segment Performance

The Coca-Cola Company KO is winning by leaning on its ability to balance global scale with sharp local execution. In second-quarter 2025, the company delivered 5% year-over-year organic revenue growth and margin expansion despite a 1% volume decline, showing its pricing power and portfolio strength. Notably, Coca-Cola extended its streak to 17 consecutive quarters of global value share gains, fueled by strong performance in brands like Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, fairlife, BODYARMOR and Powerade. Its “all-weather strategy” helped it stay resilient amid currency headwinds, adverse weather and consumer pressures.

Regionally, Coca-Cola is excelling in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. Europe saw volume growth across both East and West, driven by the Share a Coke campaign and momentum in Coke Zero Sugar, Sprite and Fuze Tea. Africa delivered growth in Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria through refined pack-price strategies and bold marketing activations. Even in volatile markets like Eurasia and the Middle East, the company grew its share by focusing on local sourcing, affordability and innovative sparkling flavors.
 
Beyond regional performance, Coca-Cola’s ability to scale innovation is becoming a key competitive edge. Recent launches like Sprite + Tea in North America, along with portfolio expansion in dairy through fairlife, continue to capture evolving consumer preferences. The company is also using digital platforms and AI-driven pack-price optimization to sharpen execution, while its refillable and mini-can strategies are strengthening affordability and premiumization simultaneously. These initiatives, supported by robust local partnerships, reinforce Coca-Cola’s “all-weather strategy” — enabling it to pivot quickly across markets and deliver sustainable growth despite economic uncertainty.

KO’s Rivals Drive Growth With New Products

In a fiercely competitive beverage market, PepsiCo Inc. PEP and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. KDP are standing out by leveraging their core strengths and strategic expansions to capture growth across categories.

PepsiCo is winning through its balanced strength across snacks and beverages, driven by a sharpened focus on productivity, innovation and portfolio diversification. In North America, its Frito-Lay business is stabilizing the category while fueling growth in subsegments like Cheetos, Doritos and the expanding more than $2 billion permissible snacking portfolio with brands such as SunChips and PopCorners. Beverages are also gaining ground, with no-sugar colas delivering share gains and Gatorade regaining momentum in sports drinks.

Keurig is winning in U.S. Refreshment Beverages, where net sales rose nearly 11% in the second quarter, fueled by both core CSD strength and rapid growth in emerging categories. Flagship Dr Pepper continues to post market share gains for the ninth consecutive year, supported by flavor innovation, merchandising expansion and strong consumer engagement. At the same time, KDP’s energy portfolio, anchored by GHOST, C4, Bloom and Black Rifle, has scaled past $1 billion in annual run-rate sales and now commands 7% share of the $26 billion energy market, a dramatic rise from below 1% just a few years ago. Sports hydration brand Electrolit is another standout, growing over 30% and gaining share.

The Zacks Rundown for Coca-Cola

KO’s shares have risen 9.6% year to date compared with the industry’s growth of 3.6%.

From a valuation standpoint, Coca-Cola trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.72X, significantly higher than the industry’s 17.58X.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KO’s 2025 and 2026 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 3.1% and 8.3%, respectively. Earnings estimates for 2025 and 2026 have been unchanged in the past seven days.

Coca-Cola currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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