Coke's Revenue, Earnings Keep Flowing

The company has a solid balance sheet, gets an A++ financial strength rating and has good price stability and earnings predictability. The long run of increased revenue and earnings is something many other companies envy.

The product is a worldwide brand so the major concern is not sales but commodity and currency fluctuations. Growth in India has been over 20% and solid growth was also experienced in Japan, Russia, Brazil and China.

Investor Interest:

TheStreet has given this stock an A+ rating.

Wall Street analysts have issued six strong buy, six buy, five hold and only one underperform call to their clients and firms including Deutsche Securities, Citigroup and Credit Suisse advise client to keep this one. Warren Buffet is an investor in the stock and Jim Cramer has also given a thumbs up.

I like to use Motley Fool as a gauge for the individual investors' thoughts and 6,570 Fool readers gave the stock a 95% confidence vote to beat the market.

Peer Comparison:

The market always has the final say, and although Coca-Cola gained 9% during the past year AB InBev (BUD) was up 62%, Pepsico (PEP) was up 13% and Diageo (DEO) was up 42%. Day traders might be more interested in these other stocks.

Conclusion: Coca-Cola is not a volatile stock, nor is it a high-growth stock. For conservative investors who have an IRA on a dividend reinvestment program this might be an ideal holding. Your retirement account should contain a portfolio of stocks with solid balance sheets and long, uninterrupted histories of increasing revenue and earnings and KO fits that mold.

As the turtle channel chart below shows, the recent price weakness seems to have bottomed out and a support level has been reached. Now might be a time to accumulate additional shares or make a purchase in your IRA and place it on a dividend reinvestment program.

This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

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