Fundamentals snapshot
KO · NYQ · Consumer Defensive · Beverages - Non-Alcoholic
Current price
$79.48
52-week range
$65.35 - $82.66
Market cap
$341.96B
One-glance verdict
Fair-value range $41.37 – $52.54 (cautious → optimistic — tap the ? for the math)
Wall Street consensus: $86.06 (94.1% higher than our fair-value estimate)
Buy below $35.48 for a 20% safety cushion
Balance sheet
Net debt $30.83B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
Quick scan of the biggest positives and negatives from the detailed checklist below.
What this company does
Coca-Cola is a global beverage company that sells hundreds of brands beyond its classic soda, including Sprite, Dasani water, and Powerade. The company makes most of its money not from selling the finished drinks, but from producing and selling the profitable syrups and concentrates to its worldwide network of bottling partners and restaurants. This business model is powerful because it leverages iconic brands and massive scale while outsourcing the more expensive work of bottling and distribution.
Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by an Atlanta pharmacist, Dr. John S. Pemberton, who created a flavored syrup and sold it at a local pharmacy's soda fountain. An early business partner, Asa Candler, bought the company and used innovative marketing, like coupons for free drinks, to grow its popularity. A key turning point was in 1899 when the company sold the rights to bottle Coca-Cola, creating a worldwide network of independent bottling partners that remains crucial to its business today. This system allowed the brand to expand globally, especially after World War II, making it one of the most recognized brands on the planet.
The Coca-Cola Company is a global beverage business that owns the recipes for and sells the core ingredients for its drinks. You'd recognize many of its 200+ brands, which include not just sodas like Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta, but also a wide variety of other drinks. These range from waters and sports drinks (Dasani, Smartwater, Powerade, BodyArmor) to juices and dairy (Minute Maid, Simply, Fairlife) and teas and coffees (Gold Peak, Costa Coffee). The company doesn't typically bottle and sell the final product you buy in the store itself; instead, it operates a franchise-like system, selling its concentrated syrups and beverage bases to bottling partners around the world who then produce, package, and distribute the finished drinks.
This is the company's most profitable business and its core money-maker, responsible for the majority of its revenue. Coca-Cola creates and sells beverage bases and syrups—the secret formulas for its drinks—to a global network of independent and company-owned bottlers. These bottlers are the ones who add water and carbonation, package the drinks in cans and bottles, and then sell them to stores, restaurants, and vending machines. This model is very profitable because shipping concentrated syrup is much cheaper than shipping heavy, water-filled drinks, allowing the company to earn high-profit margins (the portion of sales kept as profit).
While Coca-Cola primarily sells concentrates, it also owns and operates some of its own bottling and distribution facilities in certain parts of the world. This segment, known as the Bottling Investments Group (BIG), handles the entire process from manufacturing to selling the final, ready-to-drink beverages directly to retailers in specific markets. This part of the business generates a lot of revenue (the total amount of money coming in) but has much lower profit margins compared to selling concentrates because of the higher costs of production, packaging, and shipping. The company has been strategically selling many of these company-owned bottling operations to independent partners to focus on its more profitable concentrate business.
The company is focused on growing its total beverage portfolio, especially in categories beyond traditional sodas, like water, sports drinks, coffee, and even exploring alcoholic beverages. It is heavily investing in digital marketing and data analysis to better connect with younger consumers and understand their changing tastes. Management is also pushing for innovation in its products and packaging, including launching new flavors and using more sustainable materials. A key part of the strategy is to continue strengthening its global network of bottling partners to ensure its products are available everywhere and tailored to local preferences.
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: $86.06 (94.1% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Buy below $35.48 for a 20% safety cushion. That means buying at least 20% below our fair value, as a buffer in case our estimate turns out too rosy.
Our most-likely fair value is $44.34 a share — about 44.2% below today's price of $79.48, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Net debt $30.8B. 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 $44.65B Interest coverage 9.02x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $52.73B Interest coverage 12.03x +33% vs KO Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than KO.
Total debt $94.47M Interest coverage 38.30x +325% vs KO Carries about 4.2x more debt cushion than KO.
Total debt $28.89B Interest coverage 4.84x -46% vs KO Carries about 1.9x less debt cushion than KO.
Total debt $11.20B Interest coverage 7.92x -12% vs KO Has roughly the same debt cushion as KO.
Total debt $675.88M Interest coverage 9.57x +6% vs KO Has roughly the same debt cushion as KO.
What you should know
The numbers
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
Profitability
Health
Growth
Cash flow
Dividend
Metric explainer
Debt comparison
What you should know