The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) published its earnings report for the fiscal fourth quarter on Wednesday that came in better than what analysts had anticipated. The beverage giant acknowledged the impact of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases in December and early January.
The ongoing health emergency has so far infected more than 27 million people in the United States and caused a little under half a million deaths. In an announcement in December, Coca-Cola expressed plans slashing its global workforce by 2,200 jobs as COVID-19 accelerated restructuring.
Coca-Cola’s Q4 financial results versus analysts’ estimates
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Coca-Cola said that its net income in the fourth quarter printed at £1.06 billion that translates to 24.58 pence per share. In the same quarter last year, it had reported a much higher £1.47 billion of net income or 33.98 pence per share.
Adjusted for one-time items, the American multinational earned 33.98 pence per share in Q4 versus the year-ago figure of 31.81 pence per share. Coca-Cola said that it generated £6.22 billion of revenue in the recent quarter that represents a 5% year over year decline.
According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to post a marginally lower £6.21 billion of revenue in the fourth quarter. Their estimate for adjusted per-share earnings was capped at 30.36 pence per share.
As per Coca-Cola, its revenue tanked the least in North America that saw a 1% annualised decline, while Latin America performed the weakest with a 14% decline in Q4 revenue. The U.S. firm had registered £6.25 billion of revenue in the prior quarter (Q3).
Other prominent figures in Coca-Cola’s financial update on Wednesday include a 1% decline in sparkling soft drinks volume, a 1% increase in its namesake soda volume, and a 3% growth in Coke Zero Sugar’s volume.
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Coca-Cola’s guidance for fiscal 2021
For fiscal 2021, the Atlanta-based company now forecasts close to 10% growth in its adjusted per-share earnings. In comparison, experts are calling for a 7.7% growth in its full-year adjusted EPS.
Coca-Cola shares were reported close to 2% up in premarket trading on Wednesday. Including the price action, the stock is now trading at £36.72 per share after recovering from a low of £27.15 per share in the last week of March 2020.
Coca-Cola remained flat on average in the stock market last year. At the time of writing, the American multinational beverage corporation has a market cap of £154.40 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 25.78.
