Coke (KO) moving up nicely following Q3 earnings

Posted Oct 15th 2008 1:00PM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: Major Movement, International Markets, Earnings Reports, Good news, Products and Services, Competitive Strategy, Coca-Cola (KO), Recession

It's another tough day on Wall Street, but for Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) it's looking like a very good day, as shares are moving strongly higher after the company reported better than expected third quarter earnings this morning.

For its most recent quarter, the soft drink giant was expected to show earnings per share of 77 cents, but the actual number was a more impressive 81 cents per share (83 cents excluding one time items). The company noted that strong growth in emerging markets really helped boost the quarter.

The quarterly numbers represent a 14% increase from the company's third quarter last year when it reported 71 cents per share. Revenues were up 9.1% during the quarter to $8.39 billion.

While demand within the U.S. has been wavering for the company, strong international performance helped Coke come through with a strong quarter. While the company saw a 2% drop in U.S. sales in the quarter, it put up pretty impressive revenue growth figures in other markets -- 17% in Eurasia and Africa, 10% in Europe and 24% in Latin America.

Overall, global volume was up 5% in the quarter.

Today's news has helped the stock avoid the market sell-off that is hitting most stocks out there, and has pushed shares up 4.5% to $45.69. Earlier in the session we saw the stock move up as high as $47.33.

While today's move is a great relief for investors, it is important to note that the stock has been getting beaten up pretty bad in the market over the past year. Today's move is nice since bad earnings could have put the stock in a free fall, but the company still has a long way to go before investors can breathe easy again.

Let's close by taking a look at a one year chart of the stock: