Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) Shares Up 0.2% – Here’s What Happened

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) shares shot up 0.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $64.19 and last traded at $64.08. 2,759,197 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 13,514,761 shares. The stock had previously closed at $63.95.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on KO. Barclays cut their price target on Coca-Cola from $74.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Coca-Cola from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Cfra reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Coca-Cola in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Coca-Cola from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Coca-Cola to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.36.

Coca-Cola Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $276.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.06.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $11.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.61 billion. Coca-Cola had a return on equity of 44.01% and a net margin of 22.45%. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Coca-Cola Company will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Coca-Cola Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.485 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. Coca-Cola’s payout ratio is 80.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James Quincey sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 342,546 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,933,220.38. This represents a 22.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.97% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Coca-Cola

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Coca-Cola by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 92,961,376 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,680,205,000 after buying an additional 11,206,995 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Coca-Cola by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,615,428 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,271,885,000 after buying an additional 4,013,996 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of Coca-Cola during the 3rd quarter worth $269,382,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Coca-Cola by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 92,957,028 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,664,005,000 after buying an additional 2,966,964 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Coca-Cola during the 2nd quarter worth $188,448,000. 70.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.