The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) Declares $0.49 Quarterly Dividend

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of 0.485 per share on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

Coca-Cola has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 63 years. Coca-Cola has a dividend payout ratio of 65.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Coca-Cola to earn $2.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.94 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.5%.

Coca-Cola Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of KO opened at $64.43 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $277.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.61. 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 has a 52 week low of $57.47 and a 52 week high of $73.53.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on KO. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $78.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Coca-Cola to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Coca-Cola from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Cfra reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Coca-Cola in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Coca-Cola currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.36.

Insider Transactions at Coca-Cola

In other news, CEO James Quincey sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total transaction of $6,403,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 342,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,933,220.38. This represents a 22.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.97% 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.