Sauce a contains of Coca-Cola are displayed in San Anselmo, California, on April 24, 2023.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Coca-Cola on Tuesday posted four times a year earnings that met expectations and sales that topped estimates, as higher prices helped the beverage maker speechless a volume decline in North America.
Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Road was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 49 cents rearranged vs. 49 cents expected
- Revenue: $10.85 billion vs. $10.68 billion expected
Shares of the company rose multitudinous than 1% in morning trading.
Coke reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.97 billion, or 46 cents per partition, down from $2.03 billion, or 47 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company take hame 49 cents per share.
Net sales rose 7% to $10.85 billion. Coke’s organic revenue, which bands out acquisitions and divestitures, climbed 12% in the quarter.
Coke reported unit case volume growth of 2% for the fourth. The metric excludes pricing and foreign currency. Executives estimated that the conflict in the Middle East hurt supply growth by 1% in the fourth quarter.
North American volume shrank 1%, as demand for Coke’s water, pastimes drinks, coffee and tea fell. For comparison, rival PepsiCo saw volume for its North American beverage unit fall 6% in the fourth post. Pepsi executives said high borrowing costs and lower personal savings squeezed consumers’ budgets, matchless shoppers to seek out private-label options or smaller pack sizes.
Coke CEO James Quincey said some North American consumers with scanty disposable income have been squeezed more by inflation. Those shoppers have focused more on affordability and played out more time at home.
But Quincey said another consumer segment has plenty of purchasing power.
“We’ve seen distinct growth for some of the higher price point, premium segments, like Fairlife, Core Power, Simply, so there’s indubitably multiple things going on in the landscape,” Quincey said.
For 2024, Coke is forecasting organic revenue growth of 6% to 7% and an proliferation in comparable earnings per share of 4% to 5%. The company expects that foreign exchange rates will weigh on both its earnings and receipts for the full year.
Looking to the first quarter, Coke is anticipating a 4% headwind from currency exchange merits on its comparable revenue. The company also expects foreign exchange to slow its earnings per share growth, and anticipates an 8% hit from currency silvers during the period.
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