Earnings Preview: The Coca-Cola Co.

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) is expected to report Q2 earnings before market open Thursday, July 17, with a conference call scheduled for 8:30 am ET.

Guidance

Analysts are looking for EPS of 96c on revenue of $8.93B. The consensus range for EPS is 94c to 97c, while the consensus range for revenue is $8.42B to $9.30B, according to First Call.

On May 28, Coca-Cola announced that it continued to be confident in its global business outlook for Q2 and FY08. The company said that strong international operations, which make up 80% of Coca-Cola's business, will continue to offset weakness in North America.

Analyst Views

Coca-Cola's stock has seen a good deal of weakness over the last three months, due mostly to macroeconomic concerns, but the stock was defended on July 15 by Credit Suisse, who said that food inflation and costs pressures in emerging markets are overblown given long-term growth prospects; Credit Suisse rates Coca-Cola an Outperform.