TD Cowen Upgrades Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) to Buy

TD Cowen upgraded shares of Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $75.00 target price on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Coca-Cola from $78.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Coca-Cola from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Coca-Cola in a research note on Tuesday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $74.00 target price on the stock. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Coca-Cola to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.60.

Coca-Cola Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Coca-Cola stock opened at $61.73 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $265.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.52. Coca-Cola has a 12-month low of $57.93 and a 12-month high of $73.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.03. Coca-Cola had a net margin of 22.45% and a return on equity of 44.01%. The company had revenue of $11.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.61 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Coca-Cola will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Coca-Cola Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.485 per share. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Coca-Cola’s payout ratio is presently 80.17%.

Insider Transactions at Coca-Cola

In related news, CEO James Quincey sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total transaction of $6,403,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 342,546 shares in the company, valued at $21,933,220.38. The trade was a 22.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Coca-Cola

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of KO. InvesTrust purchased a new stake in Coca-Cola during the fourth quarter valued at about $5,463,000. Fulton Bank N.A. increased its position in shares of Coca-Cola by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 80,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,018,000 after purchasing an additional 4,317 shares during the last quarter. Park National Corp OH raised its holdings in shares of Coca-Cola by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 465,638 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,991,000 after buying an additional 67,604 shares in the last quarter. One Wealth Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Coca-Cola in the fourth quarter worth approximately $219,000. Finally, Strathmore Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Coca-Cola during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $455,000. Institutional investors own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

Coca-Cola Company Profile

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.