Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Stock Position in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) by 2.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 215,035 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,522 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Coca-Cola were worth $15,452,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of KO. Independent Advisor Alliance grew its holdings in shares of Coca-Cola by 0.7% during the third quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 534,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,418,000 after buying an additional 3,699 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in Coca-Cola by 81.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 10,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $748,000 after acquiring an additional 4,669 shares during the period. Davis R M Inc. grew its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. Davis R M Inc. now owns 17,575 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,263,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Coca-Cola in the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Finally, Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 5.7% during the third quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 89,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,400,000 after purchasing an additional 4,821 shares during the last quarter. 70.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Coca-Cola from $78.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Cfra reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Coca-Cola in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Coca-Cola from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Coca-Cola from $74.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Coca-Cola currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.36.

Coca-Cola Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of KO opened at $63.92 on Monday. The Coca-Cola Company has a fifty-two week low of $57.47 and a fifty-two week high of $73.53. The company has a market capitalization of $275.35 billion, a PE ratio of 26.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $67.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.06.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $11.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.61 billion. Coca-Cola had a return on equity of 44.01% and a net margin of 22.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that The Coca-Cola Company will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Coca-Cola Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.485 per share. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. Coca-Cola’s payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO James Quincey sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total value of $6,403,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 342,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,933,220.38. The trade was a 22.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Nancy Quan sold 18,484 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.50, for a total value of $1,321,606.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 223,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,968,095. This represents a 7.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.97% of the company’s stock.

Coca-Cola Company Profile

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks, sparkling flavors; water, sports, coffee, and tea; juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverages; and other beverages. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores.