In the latest trading session, Coca-Cola (KO) closed at $71.15, marking a -0.88% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.56%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.58%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.51%.
Shares of the world's largest beverage maker witnessed a loss of 0.79% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its gain of 1.67% and the S&P 500's gain of 7.37%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Coca-Cola in its upcoming release. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $0.83, marking a 1.19% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $12.59 billion, indicating a 1.81% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $2.96 per share and a revenue of $48.17 billion, signifying shifts of +2.78% and +2.36%, respectively, from the last 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. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the company's business performance and profit potential.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. 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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.24% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Currently, Coca-Cola is carrying a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
From a valuation perspective, Coca-Cola is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 24.22. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 20.36.
It's also important to note that KO currently trades at a PEG ratio of 3.82. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The average PEG ratio for the Beverages - Soft drinks industry stood at 2.55 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 57, placing it within the top 24% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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 ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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