Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is out with mixed earnings. Third quarter earnings rose 9% to $2.06 billion, while earnings on a per share basis rose to $0.88 EPS from $0.81 EPS a year ago. Revenue rose more than 4% to $8.43 billion. Thomson Reuters had consensus estimates at $0.89 EPS and $8.30 billion in revenues. The company also noted that on a currency-neutral basis the revenued were up 8% from a year ago.
Case volume in North America rose by 2% in the third quarter, and that follows a 2% gain in the second quarter as well.
International volume growth was 6%, and the global growth came to 5% if you factor in lower domestic growth. Eurasia and Africa volumes rose by a sharp 12%.
The stance is that the CCE integration is on track, and the company is still projecting $500 million in annual cost savings by the end of 2011.
The company ended the quarter with roughly $10.5 billion in cash and equivalents. As far as share buybacks, the company did not buy shares in the last three quarters due to the CCE deal. It did note, however, that it expects to repurchase about $2 billion worth of shares in the current quarter before year-end.
Despite some mixed data on the earnings, Coca-Cola shares are up 1.25% at $60.75 in initial pre-market trading.
JON C. OGG
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