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Coca-Cola (KO) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) closed at $62.84, marking a +0.06% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.36%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.01%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.91%.

Coming into today, shares of the world's largest beverage maker had gained 4.6% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector gained 3.06%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.24%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Coca-Cola as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be April 24, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.64, unchanged from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $10.85 billion, up 3.39% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.60 per share and revenue of $44.82 billion. These totals would mark changes of +4.84% and +4.21%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Coca-Cola. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Coca-Cola is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Coca-Cola has a Forward P/E ratio of 24.17 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 24.79.

It is also worth noting that KO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.63. 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. Beverages - Soft drinks stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.97 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 45, putting it in the top 18% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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