How to buy Coca-Cola shares

The Coca-Cola Company is a beverages-non-alcoholic business with stocks listed in the US. Coca-Cola shares (KO) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Its last market close was US$48.49 – a decrease of 0.43% over the previous week. Here's how to invest if you're based in Australia.

How to buy shares in Coca-Cola

1. Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares in a US company from Australia you'll need to find a trading platform that offers access to US stock markets. If you're just starting out, look for a platform with low brokerage and foreign exchange fees.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Coca-Cola. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: KO. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Coca-Cola reaches your desired price. To spread out your risk, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of US$48.49, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Coca-Cola, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Coca-Cola. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

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Coca-Cola share price

Use our graph to track the performance of KO stocks over time.

Coca-Cola shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-01-23.

52-week range	US$35.3773 - US$58.1404
50-day moving average	US$52.0036
200-day moving average	US$50.0125
Target price	US$57.05
PE ratio	25.1244
Dividend yield	US$1.64 (3.38%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	US$1.93

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Is it a good time to buy Coca-Cola stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of The Coca-Cola Company by TradingView

Coca-Cola price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $48.49 on 2021-01-22

1 week (2021-01-19)	-0.04%
1 month (2020-12-24)	-9.26%
3 months (2020-10-26)	-2.63%
6 months (2020-07-24)	0%

1 year (2020-01-24)	-15.93%
2 years (2019-01-25)	2.36%
3 years (2018-01-26)	-0.08%
5 years (2016-01-26)	15.23%

Is Coca-Cola under- or over-valued?

Valuing Coca-Cola stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Coca-Cola's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Coca-Cola's P/E ratio

Coca-Cola's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 25x. In other words, Coca-Cola shares trade at around 25x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Coca-Cola's PEG ratio

Coca-Cola's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 4.2288. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Coca-Cola's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Coca-Cola's EBITDA

Coca-Cola's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is US$11.3 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Coca-Cola's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Coca-Cola financials

Revenue TTM	US$33.5 billion
Operating margin TTM	29.3%
Gross profit TTM	US$22.6 billion
Return on assets TTM	6.64%
Return on equity TTM	40.78%
Profit margin	24.9%
Book value	4.33
Market capitalisation	US$208.4 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Coca-Cola shares

There are currently 25.1 million Coca-Cola shares held short by investors – that's known as Coca-Cola's "short interest". This figure is 8.9% down from 27.6 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Coca-Cola shares can be evaluated.

Coca-Cola's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Coca-Cola's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Coca-Cola shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Coca-Cola shares traded daily (recently around 15.1 million). Coca-Cola's SIR currently stands at 1.67. In other words for every 100,000 Coca-Cola shares traded daily on the market, roughly 1670 shares are currently held short.

However Coca-Cola's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Coca-Cola shares, or, against the total number of tradable Coca-Cola shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Coca-Cola's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Coca-Cola shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0059% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Coca-Cola shares, roughly 6 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Coca-Cola.

Find out more about how you can short Coca-Cola stock.

Coca-Cola's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Coca-Cola.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Coca-Cola's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 21.08

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Coca-Cola's overall score of 21.08 (as at 01/01/2019) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 37th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Coca-Cola is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Coca-Cola's environmental score

Environmental score: 8.2/100

Coca-Cola's social score

Social score: 10.31/100

Coca-Cola's governance score

Governance score: 1.57/100

Coca-Cola's controversy score

Controversy score: 3/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Coca-Cola scored a 3 out of 5 for controversy – a middle-of-the-table result reflecting that Coca-Cola hasn't always managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

The Coca-Cola Company was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	21.08
Total ESG percentile	37.48
Environmental score	8.2
Social score	10.31
Governance score	1.57
Level of controversy	3

Coca-Cola share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 85.42% of net profits

Recently Coca-Cola has paid out, on average, around 85.42% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.38% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Coca-Cola shareholders could enjoy a 3.38% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Coca-Cola's case, that would currently equate to about $1.64 per share.

Coca-Cola's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Coca-Cola's most recent dividend payout was on 15 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 30 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Coca-Cola's shares ever split?

Coca-Cola's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 13 August 2012. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Coca-Cola shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Coca-Cola shares which in turn could have impacted Coca-Cola's share price.

Coca-Cola share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Coca-Cola's shares have ranged in value from as little as US$35.3773 up to US$58.1404. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Coca-Cola's is 0.5814. This would suggest that Coca-Cola's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Coca-Cola overview

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks; water, enhanced water, and sports drinks; juice, dairy, and plant?based beverages; tea and coffee; and energy drinks. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores. The company sells its products under the Coca-Cola, Diet Coke/Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Fresca, Schweppes, Sprite, Thums Up, Aquarius, Ciel, Dasani, glacéau smartwater, glacéau vitaminwater, Ice Dew, I LOHAS, Powerade, Topo Chico, AdeS, Del Valle, fairlife, innocent, Minute Maid, Minute Maid Pulpy, Simply, ZICO, Ayataka, Costa, dogadan, FUZE TEA, Georgia, Gold Peak, HONEST TEA, and Kochakaden brands. It operates through a network of company-owned or controlled bottling and distribution operators, as well as through independent bottling partners, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Coca-Cola is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.699% of Coca-Cola shares are held by insiders and 68.203% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for Coca-Cola?

  Coca-Cola's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Coca-Cola based?

  Coca-Cola's address is: One Coca-Cola Plaza, Atlanta, GA, United States, 30301

• What is Coca-Cola's ISIN number?

  Coca-Cola's international securities identification number is: US1912161007

• What is Coca-Cola's CUSIP number?

  Coca-Cola's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 191216100