The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $72.00.

KO has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th.

Coca-Cola Price Performance

KO stock opened at $68.02 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $293.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.21, a PEG ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. Coca-Cola has a 12-month low of $55.10 and a 12-month high of $73.53. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.96.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Coca-Cola had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 43.62%. The firm had revenue of $12.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Coca-Cola will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Coca-Cola Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a $0.485 dividend. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Coca-Cola’s payout ratio is 77.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Coca-Cola news, EVP Nancy Quan sold 18,482 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.95, for a total value of $1,274,333.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 223,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,398,603.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO James Quincey sold 42,397 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.02, for a total transaction of $2,968,637.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 442,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,987,070.92. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Nancy Quan sold 18,482 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.95, for a total transaction of $1,274,333.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 223,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,398,603.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 356,792 shares of company stock valued at $24,728,364. Corporate insiders own 0.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 21.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 49,297,505 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,016,023,000 after buying an additional 8,733,326 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 30.5% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 12,698,984 shares of the company’s stock valued at $776,924,000 after buying an additional 2,964,850 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Coca-Cola during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $188,448,000. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Coca-Cola during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $157,087,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 42.6% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 6,245,331 shares of the company’s stock valued at $397,515,000 after buying an additional 1,866,348 shares in the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks, sparkling flavors; water, sports, coffee, and tea; juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverages; and other beverages. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores.