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Coca-Cola (KO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $49.96, moving -1.11% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.49% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.69%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.56%.

Heading into today, shares of the world's largest beverage maker had lost 5.27% over the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 0.66% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.44% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from KO as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.41, down 6.82% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.65 billion, down 4.64% from the prior-year quarter.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for KO. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.12% higher within the past month. KO is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, KO is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 24.13. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.74, so we one might conclude that KO is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that KO currently has a PEG ratio of 5.75. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Beverages - Soft drinks industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 3.76 as of yesterday's close.

The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 169, putting it in the bottom 34% of all 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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