Coca-Cola Stock: Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Because of how much the restaurant sector struggled during the pandemic, sales for Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) were hurting as well. But the giant drink business has now posted nine straight quarters of year-over-year revenue gains, an extremely rare feat for such a mature and dominant enterprise. The stock, however, is down about 1% (as of this writing) over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 8%.
At a current price-to-earnings ratio of 27, which is in line with the trailing three-year average valuation, does it make sense for investors to buy Coca-Cola right now? Let's take a closer look at what's going on with this top beverage stock.
I mentioned earlier how Coca-Cola is experiencing strong momentum as of late. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2023 ended March 31), the company that's home to household brands like its namesake Coca-Cola drink, as well as Dasani, Powerade, and Simply Beverages (among others), posted revenue of $11 billion, good for a 5% jump compared to the year-earlier period. Diluted earnings per share increased 12% to $0.72. Both of these headline figures exceeded Wall Street analyst forecasts, which is always a positive thing for shareholders to see. What's more, the company registered a superb operating margin of nearly 31% during the quarter.
Source Fool.com
