Can Coca-Cola's Billion-Dollar Brands Power Its Next Growth Wave?

The Coca-Cola Company’s KO extensive roster of billion-dollar brands continues to serve as a competitive advantage and a key engine for future growth. With almost 30 brands, the company leverages both its broad category presence and expansive global scale to drive sustained growth. The company’s core sparkling soft drink leaders, Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar, Sprite and Fanta, continue to anchor the portfolio, supported by ongoing innovation, premiumization and robust marketing investments.

Coca-Cola is capitalizing on its portfolio strength, hence improving execution in all aspects of the strategic growth flywheel. The company boasts an unparalleled portfolio strength with its 30 billion brands, which it estimates account for nearly one-quarter of all billion-dollar brands in the industry. It has an alliance with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse on a global Halloween campaign for Fanta, activating the initiative across nearly 50 markets.

Coca-Cola is strengthening its marketing capabilities while advancing a robust pipeline of innovations, including Sprite + Tea in North America, BACARDÍ Mixed with Coca-Cola in Mexico and Europe, and the Powerade Springboks addition in South Africa. KO’s marketing and innovation agenda seems robust, with strong in-market execution. It is also progressing on its journey to re-franchise its company-owned bottlers, strengthening the broader system and positioning it to unlock growth.

KO’s marketing transformation is focused on forging deeper consumer connections through enhanced digital enhancement, personalized experiences and culturally relevant storytelling. By offering consumers greater choice across its total beverage portfolio and leveraging the strength of its system capabilities, the company continues to build momentum and expand its leadership in the long term. 

As the company continues to build and expand its portfolio of brands, it expects the number of billion-dollar brands to keep growing. In a nutshell, Coca-Cola’s billion-dollar brands provide a powerful growth platform, and as the company continues to adapt to evolving consumer tastes and market dynamics, these brands are well-positioned to fuel its next major phase of growth.

KO’s Competition

PepsiCo, Inc. PEP and Monster Beverage MNST are the beverage companies competing with Coca-Cola.

PepsiCo boasts a powerful portfolio of billion-dollar brands spanning beverages and snacks, including Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Gatorade, Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, and more. This extensive portfolio enables PepsiCo to meet diverse consumer preferences across a variety of occasions, spanning soft drinks and sports beverages to chips, cereals, and other packaged foods. PEP continues to emphasize value leadership by offering a sturdy balance of affordability, innovation and brand equity across its beverage and snacks portfolio. 

Monster Beverage has established a strong brand in the energy drink market, known for its bold image, edgy marketing and strong appeal to consumers. MNST’s flagship Monster Energy line, together with sub-brands such as Java Monster and Monster Rehab, continues to drive consistent growth. Monster Beverage continues to uphold its value leadership in the global energy drinks category, supported by sustained brand equity, strategic innovation and disciplined pricing.

KO’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of Coca-Cola have gained 16.6% year to date compared with the industry’s growth of 7.1%.

From a valuation standpoint, KO trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 22.7X compared with the industry’s average of 18.02X.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KO’s 2025 and 2026 earnings per share (EPS) implies year-over-year growth of 3.5% and 8%, respectively. The estimates for 2025 and 2026 have been stable in the past 30 days.

Coca-Cola stock 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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