Coca-Cola Stock Loses Its Cool After Earnings

While Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO) entered the earnings confessional this morning with first-quarter profits and revenue that exceeded analysts estimates, the shares of the soda giant are slipping in early market trading. KO is down 4.6% at $44.38 after the company also predicted its current-quarter sales would take a hit from the coronavirus lockdown, with half of its revenue tied up in public venue sales. 

On the charts, KO is running into pressure at its 40-day moving average, though the shares seem to have found a floor atop the $45 level since their early April bear gap. For the year, the equity is down around 16%, though it's still clinging to a month-to-date gain of roughly 5%. 

The brokerage bunch is mum on KO so far, though coming into today, most analysts were optimistic. Nine of the 15 in coverage call the equity a "buy" or better. Plus, the consensus 12-month price target of $53.26 is a 14.5% premium to last night's close. 

The options pits have taken a slightly more pessimistic stance. KO sports a 50-day call/put volume ratio of 0.67 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), that sits in the 89th percentile of its annual range. This means that while calls are still outnumbering puts on an overall basis, these bearish bets have rarely been more popular in the past 12 months.