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Why the Market Dipped But Coca-Cola (KO) Gained Today

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Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $59.96, demonstrating a +0.23% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.8%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.76%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.18%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest beverage maker had gained 1.98% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 2.53% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.4% in that time.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Coca-Cola in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.48, indicating a 6.67% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $10.61 billion, showing a 4.78% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Coca-Cola. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the company's business operations and its ability to generate profits.

Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

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, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. Coca-Cola currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Coca-Cola has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.33 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.4, so one might conclude that Coca-Cola is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that KO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.43. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. KO's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.12 as of yesterday's close.

The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 26, finds itself in the top 11% echelons of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered 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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