The Czech National Bank has announced that it has increased its holdings in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) by 0.6% during the first quarter of this year, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. This institutional investor is now a proud owner of 458,553 shares of the stock after purchasing an additional 2,829 shares during the period. It is important to note that Coca-Cola makes up approximately 0.7% of Czech National Bank’s holdings, which means that it ranks as its 24th biggest holding. The bank’s holdings in the renowned beverage company were worth $28,444,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
However, in other news, insider Nikolaos Koumettis sold 253,102 shares of Coca-Cola’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.63 and faced a total transaction worth $16,104,880.26 following this sale. Following this transaction Koumettis was left with only 184,563 shares in the company valued at $11,743,743.69 while Manuel Arroyo who serve as CMO will sold his share which amounted to 734 for a total value worth $46,535.60.
According to available data obtained through disclosure filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), insiders have sold a total of 420,786 shares of the company’s stock over the last ninety days; these transactions are estimated to be worth $26,886224 and represent approximately one percent of company stocks currently owned by insiders.
Shares for NYSE:KO initially opened at $61.25 on Monday following fluctuating trends within previously relied upon projections from investors who had hoped said stocks would recover beyond their estimated fifty day moving average price of $62.23 and a two hundred day moving average price of $61.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.15, and a quick ratio of 0.95 while it has gathered a market capitalization of $264.88 billion, thus having a PE ratio estimated at 26.84, as well as having a PEG ratio rated at about 3.47 alongside which its beta is currently evaluated to be at 0.55; It also recorded an annual high value worth $65.47 and an annual low landing at $54.01.
In the end and despite emerging shifts in ownerships and stocks movement for both insiders and outside investors alike, Coca-Cola remains one of the leading iconic beverage companies in the world today as it continues to shape tastes across the globe with its great tasting products coupled with an impressive shares value that continues to appeal to many investors year on year regardless of market trends.
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Coca-Cola Sees Increased Institutional Investments Amidst Pessimistic Analyst Views
Coca-Cola, the soft drink giant, has recently seen a flurry of changes in its stock positions among institutional investors. Hedge funds and other institutional investors now own 68.61% of the company’s stock. Fairfield Bush & CO purchased a new stake worth $77,000 while Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Coca-Cola by 16.7% to own 12,227 shares valued at $758,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 149,275 shares of the company’s stock represented at $9,255,000 after buying an additional 43,680 shares during the quarter. Ergoteles LLC boosted its position in Coca-Cola by an enormous 385.3% now owning 19,032 shares worth $1,180,000 and Mackenzie Financial Corp also increased its position by 11.9%, acquiring another 301,804 shares Now bringing their total stock value up to $176,115,000.
Analysts at HSBC were pessimistic about Coke’s future stating that it was overvalued and dropped their price target on the share from $77 to $74(sic). Evercore ISI and Barclays increased their respective price objective from $68 to $70 and from %72 to %73 respectively.
In terms of insider trading activity Nikolaos Koumettis off-loaded most quite possibly on profit-taking grounds when he sold as much as 253k shares of Coca-Cola stocks estimated to be worth around $16million for an average price of around $63.40 which eventually takes his total shareholding down to a total market value (TMV) of $11m according to the present market price evaluations.
Meanwhile CMO Manuel Arroyo reduced his holdings with his sale transaction totaling roughly ~$47k where they sold 734 shares with an average CPI (cost per individual) quite similar to Koumettis at around $63. The CMO’s current shareholding in Coca-Cola stands at $7,264,372 per SEC filings.
The company’s earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter exceeded expectations by reporting $0.68 EPS while analysts had predicted a value of $0.65 EPS. Coca-Cola’s net margin was up to 22.69% with a return on equity of 42.96%. The company had positive revenue of $11 billion in the first quarter as compared to estimates of $10.78 billion by analysts. During the same period last year, the EPS was $0.64 resulting in an increase of 4.8% YoY for revenues generated during this quarter.
Lastly, investors were informed that Coca-Cola will pay out a quarterly dividend on Monday, July 3rd which amounts to be calculated at around ~$0.46/share approximately and is bound to represent an annualized basis dividend yield valued at 3%. Shareholders who are active as-of Thursday, June 15th will receive the entitlements detailed above while stockholders registered before Friday June 16th will be issued their dividends payments accordingly After this latest update most ratings-at-large experts have assigned a “Moderate Buy” rating to Coca-Cola stocks with an average target price hovering around ~$67.67.