Prediction: Earnings Growth Will Push Coca-cola Stock To …

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Where did this year’s rise come from?

Mainly from a higher valuation. Coca-Cola stock closed 2025 around $70. Against its 2025 non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per of $3.00, that was about 23 times earnings. Now, the stock trades at about 27 times adjusted earnings, using the $3.23 per over its past four quarters.

In other words, adjusted earnings per grew around 8% while the stock gained 26%. Most of the run-up comes from a higher price on every dollar of Coca-Cola’s earnings, and I wouldn’t count on another year that.

So earnings have to carry most of the climb to $100. Management expects 2026 adjusted earnings per of around $3.27 to $3.30, up 9% to 10%. But currency accounts for around 3 points of it. Leaving out currency and the effect of acquisitions and divestitures, the company expects growth of 7% to 8%.

If adjusted earnings per rises around 7.5% again in 2027, it’d be near $3.53. If s still fetch 27 times adjusted earnings then, that points to a stock price of around $96 by the end of 2027. Hitting $100 would take about 28 times adjusted earnings — or a year of faster growth.

Coca-Cola is selling more drinks

Showing how the mix of its growth has changed, Coca-Cola’s unit case volume (the amount of its drinks sold in its system) dropped 1% from the year before in the second quarter of 2025. Since then, volume growth has sped up, to 1% in both the third and fourth quarters of 2025, then 3% to start 2026 and 5% in the latest quarter.

Price/mix (the combined impact of price moves and shifts in what drinks and packages sell, and where) went the other way. It slowed from 6% growth in mid-2025 to 2% in this year’s second quarter. And organic revenue still rose 6% in the quarter.

I think volume-led growth is the healthier kind, since it doesn’t rely on consumers absorbing ever-higher prices.

“[W]e said that this would be a year that if we did everything right, we would see volume and price/mix more in tandem,” CEO Henrique Braun said on Coca-Cola’s second-quarter earnings call. “And that’s exactly what we’re seeing.”

Granted, management also credited the FIFA World Cup, favorable weather in some markets, and an easy comparison, leaving two-year average volume growth at 2%. But profitability rose, too. Coca-Cola’s adjusted operating margin widened to 35.6% from 34.7% a year before.

Coca-Cola Stock Quote

NYSE: KO

Coca-Cola

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

76/100

Today’s Change

(2.27%) $1.95

Current Price

$87.77

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$378BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded s outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded s. Implied market cap may vary.

Day’s Range

$86.08 – $88.03

52wk Range

$66.00 – $92.49

Volume

15.9M

Avg Vol

15.9M

Gross Margin

61.95%

Dividend Yield

2.39%

What does Oct. 27 have to show?

Coca-Cola releases third-quarter results before the opening bell on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Its full-year outlook points to adjusted earnings per of about $1.44 to $1.47 for the second half, up only about 3% to 5%, partly because the fourth quarter has six fewer days than last year.

Volume is the figure I’d track most closely. Against 1% growth in the year-ago quarter, volume growth of roughly 3% would hold the two-year pace near 2%.

Price/mix counts, too. PepsiCo cut its 2026 outlook for adjusted, currency-neutral earnings-per-growth to 1% to 2% on Thursday, and said it’s lining up more cost cuts partly to offset rising input cost inflation. Coca-Cola noted higher input costs in its second quarter as well, so price/mix staying around 2% could show it can still price through them.

Will Coca-Cola stock clear $100 before 2028? I think so. If volume keeps rising near its two-year pace and pricing holds, earnings growth around 8% a year could carry the stock to the mid-$90s. And a stock that already reached $92 in August needs just a slightly higher valuation on top of that.

But this is a prediction about earnings growth more than a bargain price. At around 25 times projected 2027 earnings, s already assume steady growth, and one or two quarters of slower volume could easily push $100 to 2028.