Coca-Cola Company (The) (KO)
Forward P/E is 26.59x against a peer median of 15.65x, a ratio of 1.70x — well above the fair range — with trailing P/E 27.19x and PEG 3.49. The growth exception does not apply: revenue growth of 12.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR) is above the group pace, but a PEG of 3.49 is far above the ~1.5 ceiling for that exception. Delivered demand check: the Beverages & tobacco group's median growth was 5.8% — demand steady, not accelerating enough to support a 1.70x premium.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E compresses to about 18.0x or below (1.15x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if earnings growth rises enough to bring the PEG to about 1.5 or below while revenue growth stays above 10% year over year. Move to BUBBLE if the forward P/E rises above about 31.3x (2.00x the peer median) without a matching rise in delivered growth.
Coca-Cola sells drinks all over the world and is growing sales at a healthy pace. Even so, its shares cost about 70% more per dollar of expected profit than similar drinks and tobacco companies. That makes the shares overvalued — a strong company priced well ahead of what it has delivered.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Coca-Cola Company (The) returned +85.63% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Coca-Cola Company (The): -20.9% (2022-04-21 to 2023-10-05). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 26.59x against a peer median of 15.65x, a ratio of 1.70x — well above the fair range — with trailing P/E 27.19x and PEG 3.49. The growth exception does not apply: revenue growth of 12.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR) is above the group pace, but a PEG of 3.49 is far above the ~1.5 ceiling for that exception. Delivered demand check: the Beverages & tobacco group's median growth was 5.8% — demand steady, not accelerating enough to support a 1.70x premium. The company’s forward P/E is 26.6× against a peer median of 15.7×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Beverages & tobacco group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 5.8% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady. Coca-Cola grew faster than that group pace at 12.1%, but not fast enough to justify its premium multiple. Latest-quarter sales growth was +12.1% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coca-Cola Company (The) (KO) | $92.18 | 26.6× | 27.2× |
| PM | $203.51 | 23.3× | 29.7× |
| PEP | $132.56 | 15.7× | 16.7× |
| MO | $73.68 | 12.8× | 15.5× |
| MNST | $45.48 | 37.0× | 42.1× |
| KDP | $34.68 | 14.3× | 35.0× |
| Peer median | 15.7× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Apr 2026 2026-04-03 | $12.5B | 63.0% | $3.9B | 0.91 | $1.8B |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $11.8B | 60.0% | $2.3B | — | $2.9B |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-26 | $12.5B | 61.5% | $3.7B | 0.86 | $4.6B |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-27 | $12.5B | 62.4% | $3.8B | 0.88 | $3.4B |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-28 | $11.1B | 62.6% | $3.3B | 0.77 | $-5.5B |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $11.5B | 60.0% | $2.2B | — | $3.1B |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-27 | $11.9B | 60.6% | $2.8B | 0.66 | $-1.7B |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-28 | $12.4B | 61.1% | $2.4B | 0.56 | $3.2B |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-29 | $11.3B | 62.5% | $3.2B | 0.74 | $158M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $10.8B | 57.3% | $2.0B | — | $1.8B |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-29 | $12.0B | 61.0% | $3.1B | 0.71 | $3.9B |
| Q/E Jun 2023 2023-06-30 | $12.0B | 59.0% | $2.5B | 0.59 | $4.1B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 23-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | COCA COLA CO |
| Chief executive | Henrique Braun (source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261027108554/en/Coca-Cola-Reports-Third-Quarter-2026-Results-and-Raises-Full-Year-Guidance) |
| Sector | Consumer Staples — Soft Drinks & Non-alcoholic Beverages — sells Coca-Cola soft drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages worldwide |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $92.18 |
| Market value (market cap) | $392.3B — share price times shares outstanding of 4,302,482,418 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $49.3B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $13.7B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $12.6B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Apr 2026 (of 23 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +85.63% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -20.9% (2022-04-21 to 2023-10-05) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000021344.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000021344.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/KO/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.