The Coca-Cola Company (KO) — Company Research

Last Updated: 01 Nov 2026

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest non-alcoholic beverage company. It mostly sells concentrate and syrups to independent bottlers, which make and distribute the drinks, and it also owns some bottling operations and finished-goods brands such as fairlife. FY2025 net revenues rose 2% to $47.9bn, comparable EPS rose 4% to $3.00 and GAAP EPS was $3.04. In 2026 growth has picked up: Q3 2026 organic revenue rose 7%, unit case volume rose 5% and comparable EPS rose 11% to $0.91. On 27 Oct 2026 the company raised its 2026 outlook to at least 5% organic revenue growth, at least 11% comparable EPS growth and at least $13.0bn of free cash flow. Since the last version of this report (18 Jun 2026) Henrique Braun has completed his first two quarters as CEO, the sale of a controlling stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa has won South African approval, and Coca-Cola is exploring a sale of Costa Coffee again. All figures come from Coca-Cola’s earnings releases and SEC filings. There are no analyst opinions, price targets or ratings in this report.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / Exchange	KO / NYSE
CEO / Leadership	Henrique Braun, CEO (since 31 Mar 2026); James Quincey, Executive Chairman; John Murphy, President and CFO; Rob Gehring, President of North America (named 25 Sep 2026)
Sector	Consumer staples — non-alcoholic beverages
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Employees	~65,900 at 31 Dec 2025, down from ~69,700 mainly because of bottler divestitures (FY2025 10-K)
Market cap	~$404.7bn ($94.08 at 30 Oct 2026 close × ~4,302m shares)
FY2025 Revenue	$47,941m net revenues (+1.9%)
FY2025 earnings	GAAP diluted EPS $3.04 (+23%); comparable EPS $3.00 (+4%); GAAP operating income $13,762m
Q3 2026	Net revenues $13,380m (+7%); organic revenue +7%; GAAP EPS $0.93; comparable EPS $0.91 (+11%)
Dividend	$0.53 quarterly ($2.12 annualised), the 64th consecutive annual increase; ~2.25% yield at $94.08

2. Bull & Bear Case

Bull Case

• Growth accelerating and guidance raised: Q3 2026 organic revenue rose 7% with unit case volume up 5%, and the 2026 outlook was raised to at least 5% organic growth and at least 11% comparable EPS growth.
• Zero Sugar momentum: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar volume rose 16% in Q3 2026, and low and no-calorie drinks put the company in a position to benefit from health and GLP-1 trends.
• Strong cash generation and dividend record: 2026 free cash flow is guided at least $13.0bn, and the $0.53 quarterly dividend was the 64th consecutive annual increase.
• Margins expanding: Q3 2026 comparable operating margin rose to 32.9% from 31.9%, and GAAP operating income rose 12%.
• Lighter, higher-margin model: Selling bottling operations in Africa and Southeast Asia and exploring an India listing cut 2027 revenue by about 8% but comparable EPS by only about 2%, according to the company.

Bear Case

• IRS tax dispute: Coca-Cola lost in the US Tax Court and has paid $6.0bn for 2007–2009. It estimates potential further tax and interest of about $14bn for 2010–2025 if it loses its appeal.
• Valuation near highs: The shares closed at $94.08 on 30 Oct 2026, close to the 52-week high of $95.37, at ~27.8x trailing GAAP EPS and ~26x EV/EBITDA.
• Soft pricing and North America: Q3 2026 price/mix rose only 1%, Asia Pacific price/mix fell 2% and North America unit case volume was flat.
• Portfolio changes shrink revenue: The company expects an acquisition and divestiture headwind of about 8% to 2027 comparable net revenues, mainly from deconsolidating Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.
• Heavy insider selling: Executive Chairman James Quincey sold more than 1.7m shares in 2026 and other executives also sold, with no open-market insider purchases found.

3. Business Segments

Coca-Cola reports four geographic operating segments plus Bottling Investments and Corporate. Percentages use Q3 2026 net revenues of $13,380m; intersegment eliminations of $(192)m make up the difference.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
North America	40.3% ($5,386m, +3%)	Concentrate and finished drinks in the US and Canada, including fairlife, BODYARMOR and Minute Maid. Q3 operating income $1,766m.
Europe, Middle East & Africa	23.2% ($3,104m, +4%; organic +7%)	Concentrate sales to bottlers such as Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Coca-Cola HBC, plus Costa Coffee. Q3 operating income $1,171m.
Latin America	14.6% ($1,958m, +25%; organic +16%)	Concentrate sales across Mexico, Brazil and the rest of the region. Q3 operating income $1,152m.
Asia Pacific	11.7% ($1,563m, +4%; organic +6%)	Concentrate sales in Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and Oceania. Q3 operating income $563m.
Bottling Investments	11.4% ($1,523m, +13%)	Company-owned bottlers, mainly in Africa, India and Southeast Asia, several of which are being sold. Q3 operating income $205m.
Corporate	0.3% ($38m)	Head-office costs and other items. Q3 operating loss $(392)m.

4. Business Model & Moat

How it makes money. Coca-Cola sells concentrate and syrups to franchised bottlers, which pay for them and make, bottle and deliver the drinks. This keeps most factories, trucks and staff off Coca-Cola’s balance sheet and supports a comparable operating margin above 30%. Finished-goods businesses such as fairlife and the remaining company-owned bottlers add revenue at lower margins.

Brand and distribution moat. Coca-Cola owns some of the world’s best-known drink brands and sells through a bottling system that reaches retailers and restaurants in more than 200 countries and territories. That reach and the marketing budget behind it are very hard for new brands to copy.

Asset-light strategy. The company has spent years refranchising bottlers to partners. Deals now under way in Africa and Southeast Asia, and a possible listing of its Indian bottler, continue that shift.

5. Financial Health

Annual figures are from Coca-Cola’s Q4 earnings releases and SEC XBRL filings. Adjusted EPS is the company’s comparable (non-GAAP) EPS. Long-term debt is the non-current amount on the year-end balance sheet. Dividends are declared per share.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	$38,655m	+17.1%	$2.25	$2.32	$1.68	$38,116m
FY2022	$43,004m	+11.3%	$2.19	$2.48	$1.76	$36,377m
FY2023	$45,754m	+6.4%	$2.47	$2.69	$1.84	$35,547m
FY2024	$47,061m	+2.9%	$2.46	$2.88	$1.94	$42,375m
FY2025	$47,941m	+1.9%	$3.04	$3.00	$2.04	$42,119m

FY2021 growth is against FY2020 net revenues of $33,014m, which were hit by the pandemic. FY2025 GAAP EPS includes gains on bottler and stake sales, partly offset by a $960m BODYARMOR trademark impairment in Q4.

Quarterly progression, most recent first, with the FY2025 total in bold:

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q3 2026	$13,380m	$0.91	$0.93
Q2 2026	$13,380m	$0.97	$1.03
Q1 2026	$12,472m	$0.86	$0.91
Q4 2025	$11,822m	$0.58	$0.53
Q3 2025	$12,455m	$0.82	$0.86
Q2 2025	$12,535m	$0.87	$0.88
Q1 2025	$11,129m	$0.73	$0.77
FY2025 total	$47,941m	$3.00	$3.04

Q1 2026 had six more days than Q1 2025, and Q4 2026 will have six fewer days than Q4 2025. Over the four quarters to 2 Oct 2026, net revenues were $51,054m, GAAP EPS ~$3.39 and comparable EPS ~$3.32.

Cash flow and balance sheet. All figures are from SEC XBRL data and Coca-Cola’s earnings releases (FY2025 10-K and Q3 2026 10-Q).

• Operating cash flow: $7,408m in FY2025, after a $6.1bn contingent payment for fairlife in Q1 2025; $12,471m in the nine months to 2 Oct 2026; $16,227m trailing twelve months.
• Capital expenditure: purchases of property, plant and equipment were $2,112m in FY2025 and $1,063m in the nine months to 2 Oct 2026, $1,945m trailing twelve months.
• Depreciation & amortisation: $1,050m in FY2025; $1,019m trailing twelve months.
• Operating income: GAAP operating income was $13,762m in FY2025 and $15,337m trailing twelve months.
• Debt at 2 Oct 2026: loans and notes payable $73m, current maturities of long-term debt $4,923m and long-term debt $36,623m, ~$41,619m in total.
• Cash at 2 Oct 2026: cash and equivalents $13,454m, short-term investments $231m and marketable securities $2,910m, ~$16,595m in total. Assets held for sale were $6,275m.

6. Valuation

Raw metrics, October 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Market cap	~$404.7bn (price $94.08 at 30 Oct 2026 close × ~4,302m shares)
Enterprise value	~$429.7bn (market cap ~$404.7bn + total debt ~$41.6bn − cash, short-term investments and marketable securities ~$16.6bn per 2 Oct 2026 balance sheet)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~27.8x (price $94.08 / TTM GAAP EPS ~$3.39, Q4 2025–Q3 2026). On TTM comparable EPS of ~$3.32 the multiple is ~28.3x
P/E (forward)	~28.3x ($94.08 / FY2026 comparable EPS of at least ~$3.33, implied by guidance of at least 11% growth on FY2025’s $3.00)
P/S (TTM)	~7.93x ($404.7bn / TTM net revenues $51.1bn)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~26.3x (EV ~$429.7bn / TTM EBITDA ~$16.4bn; EBITDA = GAAP operating income $15.34bn + D&A $1.02bn from the cash flow statement, Q4 2025–Q3 2026). Operating income is after the $960m Q4 2025 BODYARMOR impairment
P/FCF	~28.3x (market cap ~$404.7bn / TTM FCF ~$14.3bn; FCF = operating CF $16.2bn − capex $1.9bn, Q4 2025–Q3 2026)
Dividend yield	~2.25% ($2.12 annualised / $94.08)
52-week high	$95.37
52-week low	$67.27
Short interest (% of float)	~1.16% (49.6m shares at the 15 Oct 2026 settlement, MarketBeat; Yahoo Finance shows 1.16%)
Days to cover	~3.0 days (MarketBeat, on average volume of 16.9m shares; Yahoo Finance 3.06)

7. What Are They Building

Coca-Cola is focused on low and no-sugar drinks, dairy and protein, new marketing systems and a lighter bottling footprint.

• Zero Sugar and lighter drinks: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar volume rose 16% in Q3 2026 and Diet Coke rose 6%. The company also launched a US cane-sugar Coca-Cola alongside the existing recipe in autumn 2025.
• fairlife capacity: The $650m fairlife plant in Webster, New York, had a soft opening on 20 Aug 2026 and is designed to take 5–6m lb of milk a day, with three lines expected to be fully running in late 2026.
• Marketing and digital: A new Chief Digital Officer role was created in Jan 2026, and on 22 Oct 2026 the company named WPP Open X, Omnicom and Dentsu to run a new data and AI-driven marketing set-up from 01 Dec 2026.
• Affordability: Smaller packs such as mini cans are growing in North American convenience stores.
• Refranchising: Coca-Cola HBC is buying 75% of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa for $2.6bn, bottling operations in Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar are held for sale, and the company is exploring a public listing of Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings in India.

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8. Competitive Landscape

Coca-Cola competes with other soft drink, energy drink and bottling companies. Market caps are 30 Oct 2026 closing values from Yahoo Finance. Metrics come from each company’s FY2025 results.

Peer	Market cap (Oct 2026)	Key 2025 metric
PepsiCo (PEP)	~$187.2bn	FY2025 net revenue $93.9bn (+2%), core EPS $8.14, per PepsiCo Q4 2025 release
Monster Beverage (MNST)	~$92.7bn	FY2025 net sales $8.29bn (+10.7%), per Monster Q4 2025 release
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP)	~$49.7bn	FY2025 revenue ~€20.9bn (+2.3%), per CCEP FY2025 results
Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP)	~$48.8bn	FY2025 net sales $16.6bn (+8.2%), adjusted EPS $2.05, per KDP Q4 2025 release
Celsius Holdings (CELH)	~$7.4bn	FY2025 revenue $2.52bn (+85.5%), per Celsius FY2025 release

Coca-Cola said it gained global value share in non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages in Q3 2026, but lost share in parts of EMEA.

9. Leadership & Insider Activity

Henrique Braun became CEO on 31 Mar 2026, succeeding James Quincey, who remains Executive Chairman. John Murphy is President and CFO. Form 4 filings in 2026 show only open-market sales by insiders, most of them alongside option exercises. The largest are listed below; grants and option exercises are not listed.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Bruno Pietracci (Executive)	20 Aug 2026	Sale	111,365	$90.93	~$10.1m	Not verified
Nancy Quan (EVP)	19 Aug 2026	Sale	50,000	$90.39	~$4.5m	Not verified
John Murphy (President and CFO)	31 Jul 2026	Sale	152,483	$87.31	~$13.3m	No 10b5-1 box checked; after exercising options
James Quincey (Executive Chairman)	28–29 Jul 2026	Sale	527,087	~$90.05	~$47.5m	10b5-1 plan adopted 05 Mar 2026; after exercising options
James Quincey (Executive Chairman)	05 Jun 2026	Sale	436,296	$80.13	~$35.0m	Not verified
James Quincey (Executive Chairman)	07 May 2026	Sale	200,000	$78.90	~$15.8m	Not verified
James Quincey (then CEO)	03 Mar 2026	Sale	250,688	$79.14	~$19.8m	Not verified
James Quincey (then CEO)	03 Feb 2026	Sale	337,824	$77.10	~$26.0m	Not verified

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10. Key Risks

• IRS tax litigation (Legal): The Eleventh Circuit heard Coca-Cola’s appeal against the Tax Court ruling on 25 Jun 2026, and no decision had been found by 1 Nov 2026. The company estimated potential further tax and interest of about $14bn for 2010–2025 at 31 Dec 2025 and says it is more likely than not to prevail. Its 2026 tax guidance excludes any loss.
• Currency (Macro): About 3 points of 2026 comparable EPS growth come from currency, and the company expects a slight currency headwind in 2027. Currency cut comparable EPS by 7 and 9 points in FY2023 and FY2024.
• Health trends and SNAP limits (Regulatory): GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and sugar reduction could cut demand for full-sugar drinks, and about 22 US states have USDA waivers restricting soda purchases with SNAP benefits.
• Sugar taxes and ingredients (Regulatory): The 10-K lists new beverage taxes, warning labels and scrutiny of sweeteners and colourings as risks.
• Pricing and volume (Market): Q3 2026 price/mix rose only 1%, Asia Pacific price/mix fell 2% and North America volume was flat, so growth relies on emerging-market volume.
• Portfolio change and execution (Operational): The Africa bottler sale, the Southeast Asia sales, a possible India listing and a renewed Costa sale process all change the business at once. An earlier Costa auction ended in Dec 2025 without a deal.
• Cyber and supply disruption (Operational): A ransomware incident suspended fairlife production in Jul 2026 before most output resumed on 27 Jul 2026, and the new Webster plant opened later than first planned.

11. Recent Developments

• 27 Oct 2026 — Q3 2026 results and guidance raised. Net revenues rose 7% to $13.38bn, organic revenue rose 7% and comparable EPS rose 11% to $0.91. The 2026 outlook was raised to at least 5% organic revenue growth, at least 11% comparable EPS growth and at least $13.0bn of free cash flow.
• 22 Oct 2026 — Marketing agency review completed. WPP Open X keeps global creative and most media, Omnicom wins North America media and Dentsu keeps Japan and Korea, from 01 Dec 2026.
• 15 Oct 2026 — Dividend declared. The board declared the regular $0.53 quarterly dividend, payable on 15 Dec 2026 to holders of record on 01 Dec 2026.
• 08 Oct 2026 — Costa sale explored again. Semafor reported that Coca-Cola is again exploring a sale of Costa Coffee, which it bought for about $5.1bn in 2018.
• 25 Sep 2026 — New North America head. Rob Gehring was named President of the North America operating unit.
• 11 Sep 2026 — Africa bottler deal approved. South Africa’s Competition Tribunal conditionally approved Coca-Cola HBC’s purchase of 75% of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa. Coca-Cola expects the deal to close in Q4 2026.
• 20 Aug 2026 — fairlife plant opens. The $650m fairlife plant in Webster, New York, began production with a soft opening.
• 16 Jul 2026 — fairlife cyber incident. A ransomware attack temporarily suspended fairlife production; most production at its four US plants had resumed by 27 Jul 2026, and the company called the incident not material.

Macro data that move consumer stocks are tracked on the Economic Calendar.

12. Key Dates

• 01 Dec 2026 — record date for the $0.53 quarterly dividend
• 15 Dec 2026 — payment of the $0.53 quarterly dividend
• Expected Dec 2026 — completion of Coca-Cola HBC’s purchase of 75% of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (company expects Q4 2026)
• Expected Feb 2027 — Q4 and full-year 2026 results with 2027 guidance (date not yet announced; third-party calendars show 8–10 Feb 2027)
• Expected Feb 2027 — board decision on the 65th consecutive annual dividend increase (the last two were approved in mid-to-late February)
• Expected Jun 2027 — closing of the Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar bottling sales, due by mid-2027
• TBC — Eleventh Circuit ruling on the IRS tax appeal

Coca-Cola has not yet confirmed its Q4 2026 results date or its 2027 annual meeting date.

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