Coca-Cola Reports Better-Than-Expected Q4, Offers 2016 Guidance

Shares of The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO) were trading lower by around 0.68 percent early Tuesday morning after the company reported its fourth quarter results.

Coca-Cola said that it earned $0.38 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $10.0 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.37 per share on revenue of $9.9 billion.

Net revenue declined 8 percent during the fourth quarter while organic revenue fell by 1 percent, primarily due to the impact of 6 fewer days in the reporting calendar. Global volume grew 3 percent in the quarter while global price/mix grew 2 percent in the quarter.

Full-year fiscal 2015 net revenue fell 4 percent while organic revenue grew 4 percent. Global volume grew 2 percent for the full year while global price/mix also grew 2 percent.

Coca-Cola announced in its earnings that management has decided to accelerate its re-franchising plans in North America. The company is now aiming to re-franchise 100 percent of its company-owned bottling territories in North America by the end of 2017.

Coca-Cola also added that it remains committed to a previously announced $3 billion productivity initiative.

Looking forward to fiscal 2016, Coca-Cola is guiding its full-year currency neutral earnings per share growth to be 4 percent to 6 percent (including the impact of 3 to 4 points of structural headwind).

Muhtar Kent, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company said, "In late 2014, we laid out a clear five-point plan to reinvigorate growth and increase profitability. In 2015, a transition year, we delivered on this plan despite an increasingly challenging global macroeconomic environment. Our fourth quarter performance was a testament to the action we took as the Company continued to deliver solid pricing and unit case volume growth, culminating in 4% organic revenue growth for the full year. Importantly, this topline growth was led by our flagship market of North America, which delivered its strongest annual performance in three years."