Will Coke Match Pepsi's Earnings Fizz? (KO, PEP)

On Wednesday morning, we’ll get to see earnings out of Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO). The estimates from First Call for the world’s leading beverage giant are $0.55 EPS on $7.01 Billion in revenues.  Next quarter estimates are $0.62 EPS on $6.66 Billion in revenues and estimates for fiscal Dec-2008 are $3.00 EPS on $31.1 Billion in revenues.

Analysts have an average price target north of $66.00.  We recently chose Pepsico (NYSE: PEP) in an earnings and valuation measurement for our go-to defensive stock picks for the first part of 2008, and that was long before Pepsi did incredibly well off of earnings.  Jim Cramer gave some dueling targets on Coke VS. Pepsi.

Today’s options prices were signaling an expected price move of up to $1.20 in either direction.  As far as the stock chart goes, KO is no longer in its long-term uptrend.  It is looking more like it is in a no-man’s land with the 50-day moving average at $61.59 and the 200-day moving average at $56.50.  Coca Cola’s 52-week trading range is $45.56 to $65.59.

Last week, Pepsi saw shares rise over $3.00 on earnings and shares are even higher yet.  Over the last 5-days, Pepsico shares are up over 6% while Coca Cola shares are up just under 4%.

Jon C. Ogg
February 12, 2008