The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the twenty research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $74.59.

Several research firms have recently commented on KO. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Coca-Cola from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Cfra Research upgraded shares of Coca-Cola to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Coca-Cola from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Coca-Cola from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday.

Coca-Cola Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KO opened at $72.99 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $70.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.42. Coca-Cola has a 1-year low of $59.00 and a 1-year high of $73.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market cap of $314.13 billion, a PE ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.45.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.04. Coca-Cola had a net margin of 22.59% and a return on equity of 45.37%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Coca-Cola will post 2.96 EPS for the current year.

Coca-Cola Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.51 dividend. This is an increase from Coca-Cola’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Coca-Cola’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Coca-Cola news, CEO James Quincey sold 145,435 shares of Coca-Cola stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.01, for a total value of $10,327,339.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 342,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,324,191.46. The trade was a 29.80 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lisa Chang sold 13,445 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.50, for a total value of $961,317.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 94,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,769,334. This represents a 12.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 313,423 shares of company stock worth $22,263,071. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KO. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Coca-Cola by 18.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 74,163,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,617,400,000 after purchasing an additional 11,569,920 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Coca-Cola in the fourth quarter valued at $3,402,151,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Coca-Cola by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 43,802,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,727,131,000 after acquiring an additional 3,811,756 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Coca-Cola by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 34,103,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,123,301,000 after acquiring an additional 6,118,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its stake in Coca-Cola by 96.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 24,949,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,553,337,000 after acquiring an additional 12,222,885 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

About Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks, sparkling flavors; water, sports, coffee, and tea; juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverages; and other beverages. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores.