Coke Beats by a Penny, Shares Trading Higher

Coca-Cola reported Q1 net income of $1.26 billion, or $0.54/share, a 13.5% year-over-year increase and a penny better than Wall Street estimates. Revenues rose 16.6% to $6.1 billion, also beating analysts' average estimate ($5.63b). Coke says worldwide unit case volume growth of 6% on the quarter was its highest since 2002, led by international operations (up 9%), which helped offset a 3% decline in N. America. President and COO Muhtar Kent commented in a press release: "We know what we need to do in North America and are carefully addressing the issues. It will take some time to achieve the results we desire in this key market, but we expect sequential improvement as we move into the second half of the year." Coke said it repurchased $676m of its stock in Q1 and plans to buyback $2.5b - $3.0b for the full year. Shares of Coca-Cola gained 0.8% to $50.27 yesterday, its highest close since July '04. In pre-market activity, Coke is up about 1% to $50.75 (trading between $50.60 - $51.25) on volume of over 114,000.

Sources: Press release [Complete results in pdf], MarketWatch
Commentary: Jim Cramer's Take on Coca-Cola • Coca-Cola Earnings Conference Call Transcript (later today)
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Coca-Cola (KO). Competitors: PepsiCo (PEP), Cadbury Schweppes (CSG), Nestle (NSRGY.PK). ETFs: Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP), iShares Dow Jones US Consumer Goods (IYK), Vanguard Consumer Staples (VDC)

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