Coca-Cola Q3 2026 earnings: results top estimates, guidance raised
Coca-Cola topped revenue and profit forecasts in its Q3 2026 report, with pricing and volume growth lifting margins, prompting management to raise full-year guidance.
| Q3 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $0.91 | $0.91 | +0.3% |
| Revenue | $13.35B | $13.31B | +0.3% |
Key takeaways
- Coca-Cola’s revenue and profit both came in slightly ahead of what Wall Street analysts had expected for the quarter, continuing a streak of beats this year.
- Sales growth was driven by a mix of higher prices and actual volume gains — global unit case volume (a measure of how many drinks shipped) rose about 5%, while ‘organic’ revenue (stripping out currency swings and acquisitions/divestitures) grew around 7%, showing demand held up even as the company raised prices.
- Profitability improved: operating margin (the share of revenue left after running the business) rose to about 33.4% from 32.0% a year earlier, meaning Coca-Cola kept more of each sales dollar as profit than it did last year.
- The TTM fundamentals underline that strength — a roughly 62% gross margin and about 28.6% net profit margin mean Coca-Cola converts a large portion of what it sells into profit, well above the retail or food-service businesses that distribute its drinks.
- Management raised full-year guidance, now expecting comparable (adjusted) earnings per share to grow at least 11% for 2026, up from a prior forecast of 9%-10%, and organic revenue growth of at least 5% — a sign the company feels more confident about the rest of the year than it did a quarter ago.
- Trailing-twelve-month earnings-per-share growth of about 17.6% and revenue growth of about 6.5% show the improvement isn’t a one-quarter blip but part of a longer upward trend.
- Not every part of the business is uniformly strong: coverage noted continued softness in North American consumer demand and ongoing pressure in the restaurant and food-service channel, which management expects to persist through the rest of the year.
- Return on equity of nearly 43% (TTM) reflects how efficiently Coca-Cola generates profit from shareholders’ capital, though for a mature company like Coca-Cola this figure is also boosted by relatively modest equity on the balance sheet after years of share buybacks and debt use.
How the stock took it
Coca-Cola Co closed at $92.70 on Oct 26, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $91.73 on Oct 28, 2026, the first session after it — -1.1% across the report.
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 61.9% | Trailing 12 months |
| Operating margin | 30.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 28.6% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 34.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $3.32 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 6.5% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 17.6% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 43.0% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · earnings call transcript · financial news coverage