Coca
Bloomberg News
, the world's largest beverage company, said fourth-quarter profit fell 8.4 percent and announced a new cost-cutting program to boost earnings.
Net income dropped to $1.71 billion, or 38 cents a share, in the three months ended in December, from $1.87 billion, or 41 cents, a year earlier, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said today in a statement. Excluding some items, profit was 46 cents a share. The average of 16 analysts' compiled by Bloomberg was 46 cents.
Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent, facing slowing growth in emerging markets, said today Coca-Cola will pare supply and data-management costs and overhaul marketing programs to generate $1 billion in savings by 2016. Global sales volume rose 2 percent for the year and 1 percent for the quarter, less than the 4 percent annual and 3 percent quarterly growth reported a year ago.
'Coke's problems are more macro than executional, although continued carbonated soft drink weakness is also having an impact,'John Faucher, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said in a note before the results were released. He has a neutral rating on the shares.
Coca-Cola fell 0.5 percent to $38.73 at 7:34 a.m. in New York. The shares have fallen 5.8 percent this year, compared with a 0.5 percent decline for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
To contact the reporter on this story: Duane D. Stanford in Atlanta at dstanford2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net
Post a Comment for "Coca"