Coke beats Street 4Q forecasts; Diet Coke volume falls

Coca-Cola's global soda volume rose in the fourth quarter, even though Diet Coke continued to suffer declines.
The world's largest beverage maker said today global soda volume rose 2 per cent in the final three months of last year, while non-carbonated drink such as bottled water rose 6 per cent.
Coke executives have said Diet Coke's decline has been largely a US issue. That trend continued in the quarter, with the company's North America region seeing another drop in Diet Coke sales volume. But Coke Zero, which uses different sweeteners and has been marketed toward men, saw growth.
Other major diet sodas have also waned in popularity. In hopes of reviving sales of Diet Pepsi, for instance, PepsiCo swapped out the sweetener in the soda over the summer. PepsiCo has previously said it's too early to tell whether that change has helped win back customers.

Coca-Cola said its organic revenue, which strips out the impact of acquisitions and divestitures and the impact of currency fluctuations, declined primarily as a result of six fewer days in the quarter compared to a year ago. That was partially offset by higher pricing, the company said.
Coke also announced plans to refranchise all its company-owned bottling territories by the end of 2017.

For the final three months of the year, Coke earned USD 1.24 billion, or 28 cents per share. After excluding one-time items, it earned 38 cents per share. That was a penny more than Wall Street expected, according to Zacks Investment Research.

Total revenue fell 8 per cent to USD 10 billion in the period, but was higher than the USD 9.86 billion analysts expected.
Coke shares have decreased almost 1 per cent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has fallen slightly more than 9 per cent. The stock has climbed nearly 3 per cent in the last 12 months.