Coca-Cola Co. (KO) on Wednesday reaffirmed its fiscal 2024 growth projections for comparable earnings while raising its forecast for growth in both comparable currency-neutral earnings per share and organic revenue. This development followed a weaker third-quarter earnings report, presenting marginally lower revenues.
In pre-market trading on the NYSE, Coca-Cola's shares declined by approximately 2.9%, reaching $67.46.
For fiscal 2024, Coca-Cola maintains its projection for comparable earnings per share to increase by 5% to 6% from the previous year’s $2.69.
In addition, the company now anticipates a growth in comparable currency-neutral earnings per share of 14% to 15%, which is an adjustment from its earlier forecast of 13% to 15%.
Coca-Cola is also projecting organic revenue growth of about 10%, reflecting an upward revision from the prior forecast of 9% to 10% growth.
The current outlook signals performance at the favorable end of Coca-Cola's long-term growth strategy and considers expected pricing effects in various markets undergoing significant inflation.
According to data from Thomson Reuters, analysts generally forecast the company to achieve earnings of $2.85 per share with an 8.30% rise in revenue. These analyst estimates typically exclude special items.
In its third quarter, Coca-Cola reported net income attributable to shareholders of $2.848 billion or $0.66 per share, an 8% decrease from the previous year’s $3.087 billion or $0.71 per share.
The adjusted earnings for the quarter stood at $3.347 billion or $0.77 per share, compared to $3.205 billion or $0.74 per share in the prior year.
The company’s quarterly revenue experienced a 0.8% decline, falling to $11.854 billion from $11.953 billion the previous year.
Wall Street had anticipated earnings of $0.74 per share on revenue totaling $11.60 billion for the quarter.
