One-glance verdict
$45.03 our estimate vs market $86.10
Wall Street consensus: $94.65 (110.2% higher than our fair-value estimate)
91% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
KO · NYQ · Consumer Defensive · Beverages - Non-Alcoholic
Current price
$86.10
52-week range
$65.84 - $92.49
Market cap
$370.45B
One-glance verdict
Wall Street consensus: $94.65 (110.2% higher than our fair-value estimate)
91% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Balance sheet
Net debt $27.89B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
What this company does
The Coca-Cola Company is a global beverage giant that sells hundreds of brands beyond its famous sodas, like Dasani water and Minute Maid juice. It makes most of its money not by bottling drinks itself, but by selling the concentrated syrups to a worldwide network of bottling partners. This business model keeps Coca-Cola's costs low and allows its products to be sold in nearly every country, making it a highly profitable and recognizable brand.
Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, named Dr. John Pemberton, who first sold it at a local pharmacy for five cents a glass. A key turning point was the decision to sell the rights to bottle Coca-Cola, which allowed the business to expand rapidly across the U.S. and then the world. The company focused heavily on advertising to make its brand a household name and expanded its reach during World War II by supplying its drinks to U.S. soldiers. Over the years, it acquired other popular beverage brands like Minute Maid and Sprite to diversify beyond its original cola.
The Coca-Cola Company is a global beverage business that makes and sells a wide variety of non-alcoholic drinks. You would recognize many of its brands, such as Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Dasani water, smartwater, Minute Maid juices, and Powerade sports drinks. The company's main business is not actually bottling the final drinks you buy in the store. Instead, it primarily creates the secret syrups and concentrates (the flavor base for the drinks) and sells them to a network of bottling partners around the world who then add water and carbonation, package them, and sell them to stores, restaurants, and vending machines.
This is the core and most profitable part of Coca-Cola's business, making up the largest portion of its revenue. The company manufactures and sells the secret formulas, or concentrates, for its hundreds of drink brands to bottling companies. These partners, who are independent companies, pay Coca-Cola for the right to use these concentrates and the famous brand names. This business model allows Coca-Cola to be very profitable without owning many factories or trucks, a concept known as being 'asset-light'.
While most of its business is selling concentrates, Coca-Cola also has its own bottling and distribution operations in some regions, which it calls Bottling Investments Group. In this segment, the company acts as the bottler itself, handling the entire process from mixing the final beverage to packaging and delivering it to retailers. This part of the business is much smaller than its concentrate operations and is often used to stabilize or build up bottling capabilities in certain markets before selling them to independent partners.
The company's leadership is focused on growing its wide range of beverage brands to cater to every occasion, not just sodas. They are heavily investing in marketing to attract younger consumers and using digital tools to better connect with customers and retailers. Another key strategy is to continue expanding in emerging markets (countries with growing economies) where there is more room for beverage sales to increase. Management also emphasizes making their supply chain (the network to get products from the factory to you) more efficient and promoting sustainability, such as improving recycling and water stewardship.
Price history
Earnings history
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Is it cheap or expensive?
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $94.65 (110.2% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $45.03 a share — about 47.7% below today's price of $86.10, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Net debt $27.9B. Interest coverage 9.0x.
The Coca-Cola Company's profit covers its interest bill about 9.0 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
Total debt $44.26B Interest coverage 9.02x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $53.21B Interest coverage 12.03x +33% vs KO Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than KO.
Total debt $92.93M Interest coverage 38.30x +325% vs KO Carries about 4.2x more debt cushion than KO.
Total debt $33.53B Interest coverage 4.84x -46% vs KO Carries about 1.9x less debt cushion than KO.
Total debt $72.73B Interest coverage 4.05x -55% vs KO Carries about 2.2x less debt cushion than KO.
Total debt $22.20B Interest coverage 2.94x -67% vs KO Carries about 3.1x less debt cushion than KO.
What you should know
The numbers
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What you should know