Several investment firms have updated their stock ratings and price targets on shares of Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) in the last week:

  • Coca Cola had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by analysts at JPMorgan Chase. They now have a $43.00 price target on the stock.
  • Coca Cola was downgraded by analysts at Credit Agricole from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating.
  • Coca Cola had its price target raised by analysts at Citigroup from $45.50 to $46.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock. They wrote, “KO is currently trading at roughly 17x our 2013 EPS estimate, which we believe is attractive given that KO continues to gain global market share in many of its categories while the macro backdrop is also generally expected to ease as we look towards 2013. We think KO deserves to trade at a healthy premium (+60%) to the S&P 500. With that in mind, we round up our target price to $46 (from $45.50 previously), which implies 24% ETR from current levels.”
  • Coca Cola had its price target raised by analysts at Deutsche Bank from $40.00 to $42.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock. They wrote, “Making it happen. Trademark Coke and sparkling volumes remain tepid, with faster growing but lower margin still portfolio (including water), boosting total company volume and soft drink shares but also negatively impacting mix. While relative valuation is somewhat extended, fundamentals should improve as company laps currency, commodities and EM slowdown, with potential for enhanced returns from bottler divestitures. Easy money has clearly been made, but path to 10%+ total shareholder return achievable.”
  • Coca Cola had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Zacks. They now have a $40.00 price target on the stock. Zacks‘ analyst wrote, “Coca-Cola’s third-quarter earnings of $0.50 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. However, earnings declined almost 2% year over year largely hurt by currency headwinds. Revenues increased 1% as benefits from volume growth and positive pricing were largely offset by currency headwinds of 5%. Overall, Coca-Cola has solid long term fundamentals. We are encouraged by the company’s global reach, strong brand power, expanding presence outside the U.S. and its solid cash position. Moreover, the company’s acquisition of Coca-Cola Enterprises’ Bottling business and its productivity initiatives are expected to result in significant cost savings. However, soft economic conditions and tough currency environment ahead concerns us. We thus maintain a Neutral rating with a target price of $40.00.”

Coca Cola traded up 0.26% on Thursday, hitting $37.84. Coca Cola has a 1-year low of $32.37 and a 1-year high of $40.665. The company has a market cap of $169.8 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.73.

The Coca-Cola Company is a beverage company. The Company owns or licenses and markets more than 500 nonalcoholic beverage brands, primarily sparkling beverages but also a variety of still beverages, such as waters, enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and energy and sports drinks.