Coca-Cola Surprises Wall Street With Better-Than-Expected 3rd Q Financials

Coca-Cola posted healthy third-quarter profits, revenue, and sales growth, beating Wall Street forecasts on all three fronts. The company is betting it can offset a shrinking market and sagging sales in its core soft drink products with surging revenue from new products, like Coke Zero Sugar. The strongest performing beverages were sports drinks and water, which grew two percent in the quarter, as did coffee and tea beverages, such as Honest Tea. Carbonated soft drinks were stagnant, while juice, dairy, and plant-based beverages slid two percent. Net revenue dropped 20 percent for the quarter thanks to headwinds from the bottler refranchising program. Earnings were dented by a $3.6 billion one-time charge related to new U.S. tax laws. The adjusted EPS was $0.39, beating the analyst forecast of $0.38. Revenue total was $7.51 billion (forecast: $7.37 billion); organic sales growth was six percent (forecast: 3.65 percent).