Over the past couple of years soft drink companies like Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) have been struggling to maintain their market shares in a market where consumers have been moving away from soft drinks into healthier drinks such as teas and juices. Ironically, this is one area where the recession could actually be working in Coke's favor. Analyst's report that the recession has resulted in people returning to the soft drink market in order to save a little money.

Despite the current trend back into soft drinks, the long term outlook is definitely working against soft drink markers, as law makers continue to discuss levying taxes on the sugar loaded soft drinks. Coca-Cola has been going proactive and recently announced that it will start to display calories per serving and calories per container on the sides of almost all its drinks.

UBS analyst Kaumil S. Gajrawala is bullish on the stock, and recently boosted his estimate on the stock. He stated in a note to investors that he expects sales to improve in the quarter and for the company to feel less of an impact of foreign currency exchange. He noted that consumer trends are for the moment returning to soft drinks, and that Coca-Cola will benefit from the shift back towards cheaper soft drinks.

The stock is trading flat today ahead of tomorrow's earnings. The official numbers will be out before the market opens, and we will post the results when they are available.

What are your predictions? Should we expect to see better than expected numbers, or will Coke come up flat this time around?