Coke Euro: Crisis Could Dent Profits

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- As the euro crumples amid the Continent's ongoing debt crisis, investors worry about the shares of multinationals -- and no company travels the world quite like the soft-drink giant Coca-Cola(KO).

So international is the Atlanta-based Coke that it does business in 69 currencies.

But when it comes to the company's operating income, not even the greenback affects Coke as much as the euro.

This year, Coke has derived 15% to 18% of its revenue and 35% to 37% of its operating income from European Union nations, making the region Coke's largest geographical market when judged by the latter figure, according to Brian Gilmartin founder and portfolio manager at Trinity Asset Management, and a RealMoney contributor.

By comparsion, in 2009, North America produced 26.4% of Coke's revenue, but just 20.7% of its operating income.

For now, Damian Witkowski, an analyst at the mutual fund Gabelli & Co., thinks Coke's exposure to Europe's currency woes is "mitigated, at least for this quarter and the next."

Of course, if the situation there continues to deteriorate, and the euro continues to weaken, at least some pain will be unavoidable for Coke. After all, hedging against currency volatility -- which Coke executes conservatively -- only works for a period of time. "It's not a savior," said Witkowski, who maintains his buy rating on Coke's shares.

Others are less concerned by the euro's potential impact on multinationals. Frank Ingarra, a co-portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds, which typically looks at the ten highest dividend-yielding stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and holds onto them for a year, called the recent hemming and hawing over Coke's exposure to the euro "short-term noise."

Coke's geographical reach is large enough, Ingarra said, for the company to spread out currency risks.

Further, multinationals like Coke are more likely to reinvest the money earned abroad in local markets, he said, rather than repatriating it and taking a tax hit by moving money from one country to another.

Ingarra added, "I don't think people in Europe are going to buy less Coke" because of the region's economic woes.

Not all analysts and investors are positive about Coke. Trinity Asset Management's Brian Gilmartin advises selling the stock, which he recently did -- after holding onto it for several years. "The stronger dollar will hurt the stock," he said.