The Coca-Cola Company (KO) is the world’s largest beverage company and is the leading producer and marketer of soft drinks. Along with Coca-Cola, recognized as the world’s best-known brand, The Coca-Cola Company markets four of the world’s top five soft drink brands, including diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Through the world’s largest distribution system, consumers in nearly 200 countries enjoy The Coca-Cola Company’s products at a rate of more than 1 billion servings each day.
Beverage giant Coca-Cola posted a beat today, as their reported earnings for Q4 2015 topped consensus estimates by $0.01/share–analysts expected $0.37/share and the company managed to hit $0.38. That represents an overall profit of $1.24 billion which was significantly higher than last year’s $770 million.
Unlike many companies who play deep in emerging markets, Coke was not held back by economic woes in BRIC nations and elsewhere. The stronger US market bolstered their bottom line, and the move to smaller servings for higher prices helped make up the difference with overseas markets. Of course, Coca-Cola is no longer completely dependent on soda, their juices, waters, and teas have helped bolster the bottom line as consumer tastes switch to “healthier” alternatives than sugar-laden mainstays like classic Coke.
While discussing the results, Kathy Waller–company CFO– had this to say:
The main takeaway is that we achieved our key objectives of improving our top-line revenue and delivering profits in line with our expectations for the year. When we started 2015, we said it would be a transition year as we began to implement plans to reinvigorate our growth and increase profitability. Even in a year with very challenging macroeconomic factors working against us, we delivered our plan and accelerated our business. These results are thanks to the focus and determination of people all across our system. We continue to be in a period of significant change as we refocus on our core business of building brands and leading strong bottlers around the world.
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