CocaCola Company (The) $KO Shares Purchased by Merit Financial Group LLC

Key Points

• Merit Financial Group LLC increased its stake in CocaCola by 70.7%, acquiring an additional 82,550 shares and holding a total value of about $14 million at the end of the last quarter.
• Recent research reports show analysts have varying price targets for CocaCola, with BNP Paribas setting a target at $83.00, while Wells Fargo reduced theirs from $78.00 to $75.00.
• CocaCola declared a quarterly dividend of $0.51, translating to an annual yield of 3.1%, with a payout ratio of 72.34%.

Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in CocaCola Company (The) (NYSE:KO - Free Report) by 70.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 199,259 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 82,550 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in CocaCola were worth $14,098,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of CocaCola by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 361,200,808 shares of the company's stock worth $25,869,202,000 after acquiring an additional 1,114,422 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of CocaCola by 52.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 47,447,430 shares of the company's stock worth $3,398,185,000 after acquiring an additional 16,383,870 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of CocaCola by 6.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 30,889,415 shares of the company's stock worth $2,212,300,000 after acquiring an additional 1,794,561 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in shares of CocaCola by 16.0% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 21,236,315 shares of the company's stock worth $1,554,074,000 after acquiring an additional 2,922,619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of CocaCola in the first quarter worth $1,508,657,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.26% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Nikolaos Koumettis sold 37,396 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.10, for a total value of $2,584,063.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 209,513 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,477,348.30. The trade was a 15.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.97% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KO has been the subject of several research reports. BNP Paribas restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $83.00 price target on shares of CocaCola in a research note on Monday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of CocaCola from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $76.00 price target on shares of CocaCola and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of CocaCola from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of CocaCola from $84.00 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and fifteen have assigned a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $76.93.

CocaCola Stock Performance

Shares of KO stock opened at $66.65 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $68.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.94. The company has a market cap of $286.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.64, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.43. CocaCola Company has a 12 month low of $60.62 and a 12 month high of $74.38.

CocaCola (NYSE:KO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.04. CocaCola had a net margin of 25.89% and a return on equity of 44.91%. The firm had revenue of $12.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $12.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. CocaCola's quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. CocaCola has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.970-2.970 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that CocaCola Company will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CocaCola Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were given a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. CocaCola's payout ratio is 72.34%.

About CocaCola

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.

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