Atlanta based soft drink giant Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) got its chance to impress investor's this morning with its fourth quarter earnings, and it did not disappoint. While the company did see profit falling by 18% in the quarter, its bottom line was better than analysts had predicted.As Steven Mallas noted in his Coca-Cola earnings preview yesterday, analysts had been expecting to see 61 cents per share for the quarter, but the actual number was a bit higher, with a reported 64 cents a share.
Revenues in the quarter were $7.13 billion, compared with $7.33 billion during the same period last year.
The company has been fighting off a global recession by cutting expenses through job cuts and increased technology. Muhtar Kent, the company's CEO, stated that he is still standing behind his goal of cutting overall costs by $500 million by the end of 2011.
The strong dollar was an area of weakness for the company, and translated into some of the profit drop during the quarter. The stronger dollar resulted in a 9% drop in the company's operating profit during Q4.
Case volume in its strongest market, North America, was off by 3%, while its case volume internationally was up by 6% in the quarter.
While the company continues to deal with a deepening recession here in America, its strong international presence should be enough to hold things together. In fact, it may surprise you to learn that only 20% of the company's operating income comes from America, with 80% being international, so the 6% growth in case volume internationally is very important to Coca-Cola.
Taking a closer look at case volume increases internationally, we see a jump of 29% in China, 28% in India, and Eastern Europe grew in the double digits.
Wall Street is rewarding the stock today, with shares moving up over 4% in early morning trading. The stock is currently up 4.2% to $43.02, up $1.76.
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