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Coca-Cola (KO) Ascends While Market Falls: Some Facts to Note

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In the latest trading session, Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) closed at $62.83, marking a +0.75% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.47%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.31%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.51%.

The world's largest beverage maker's shares have seen an increase of 0.16% over the last month, surpassing the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 0.87% and falling behind the S&P 500's gain of 1.67%.

The upcoming earnings release of Coca-Cola will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings report is expected on February 11, 2025. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $0.51, marking a 4.08% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $10.67 billion, indicating a 1.61% decrease compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Coca-Cola. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. 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, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.19% lower within the past month. At present, Coca-Cola boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Coca-Cola is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 21.14. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 17.85, which means Coca-Cola is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that KO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.49. 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. As the market closed yesterday, the Beverages - Soft drinks industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.29.

The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 137, positioning it in the bottom 46% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained 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 use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.


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