Cola's profit fell 55 percent in the most recent quarter, as the world's biggest beverage maker restructures its business.
The company, which makes Fanta, Sprite and Powerade, is in the process of selling off its bottling businesses to independent companies that will bottle its sodas and other drinks. Instead of bottling, Coca-Cola is focusing on marketing its brands and selling syrups and concentrates to the bottlers. The change means less revenue for Coca-Cola, but fewer costs.
"This is a pivotal time of change for our company," James Quincey, Coca-Cola's next CEO, told investors in a call Thursday.
Quincey, who is currently Coca-Cola's No. 2 executive, is preparing to succeed CEO Muhtar Kent in May. Quincey has led the company's drive to cut sugar in its drinks and wants to continue to do so as CEO. He said Thursday that the company will expand the Smartwater brand in Western Europe and offer more soda in smaller cans and bottles.
Coca-Cola earned $550 million, or 13 cents per share, for the three months ending Dec. 31. A year ago the Atlanta-based company earned $1.24 billion, or 28 cents per share.
Earnings, adjusted for one-time costs and asset impairment costs, came to 37 cents per share. That's a penny better than what analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research anticipated.
Total revenue dropped to $9.41 billion from $10 billion, dragged down partly by a strong dollar, acquisitions and divestitures. Still, this managed to beat the $9.1 billion in revenue that analysts surveyed by Zacks were calling for.
Global sales volume dipped 1 percent, with a 4 percent drop in Latin America and 1 percent increases in both North America and Europe. Sales of its sparkling beverages rose 1 percent in North America, its biggest market.
Shares of Coca-Cola Co. fell $1.19, or 2.8 percent, to $40.83 in morning trading Thursday.
Rival PepsiCo Inc. will report its results next week.
_____
Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on KO at https://www.zacks.com/ap/KO
_____
Keywords: Coca-Cola, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings