Coca-Cola reports earnings a week from today before the open
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) stock has had a rough go of it in 2020 and 2021 so far. The shares are down 10% for the year and over 16% in the last 12 months, and have spent most of the new year consolidating around $48. Yet analysts are holding the line, with eight of 15 in coverage maintaining "strong buy" ratings, with zero "sells" on the books. The analyst setup for KO will be an interesting scene to check in on next week.
That's because the Coca-Cola Company is scheduled to release its fourth quarter earnings a week from today on Wednesday, February 10, before market opens.
Over the past year Coca-Cola beat analysts' earnings expectations on three of its last four quarters reported. However, that resulted in post-earnings pops --no pun intended -- of only 3.2%, 2.3%, and 1.4%, respectively. In the last eight quarters, KO has averaged a muted post-earnings move of 3.4%, regardless of direction.
With a market cap of $210 billion and over 50 consecutive years of dividend payments, Coca-Cola is undoubtedly one of the safest dividend stocks in the market. Although the KO doesn’t offer the highest yielding dividend, its 3.35% dividend is a very good return for the level of security the company offers. KO currently sports a forward dividend of $1.64.
Even with earnings coming up, now seems like the right time to weigh in on KO with options. The security's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 27% sits in the low 19thpercentile of all other annual readings, meaning the stock sports attractively priced premiums at the moment.