Coca Cola delivered solid 2016 earnings result (+6.2%), which met market expectations. The announcement of a $350 million share buyback was a positive surprise.
Structural pressures from shrinking CSD consumption will need to be off-set by continued cost out programs, such as the announced closure of the SA bottling plant.
A positive trend remains the growth in Indonesia/PNG, which delivered double-digit earnings over the past 12 months.
Looking into 2017, we expect revenue of $5.2billion, EBITDA $980m, EPS $0.58 and DPS of $0.48 placing the stock on a forward yield of 4.8%.
We own CCL in client portfolios and we’ve been selling tight covered call options to boost the cash flow to 10 – 12%+ on an annualised basis.