Coca-Cola beats results estimates, warns tariffs could hurt sentiment

By Ananya Mariam Rajesh

(Reuters) - Coca-Cola's quarterly revenue and profit beat estimates on Tuesday thanks to price hikes and strong demand for its sodas, but the beverage giant warned U.S. tariffs could impact costs and hurt consumer sentiment going ahead.

It also maintained full-year forecasts for organic revenue and comparable profit, unlike PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble that had lowered their expectations as the global trade war triggered by the Trump administration's tariffs threatened to push up costs for American companies.

"We are not immune to global trade dynamics ... the dynamic tariff landscape could impact pockets of our system's cost structure as well as consumer sentiment in our markets," Coca-Cola CFO John Murphy said, adding that consumer spending still seems robust.

In contrast, rival PepsiCo last week highlighted subdued consumer spending at a time when the company has been battling slowing demand for its snacks and drinks business.

Coca-Cola also said the global trade impact was manageable and its local operations should help mitigate any hit.

In the last quarter, the company underlined strategies to offer affordable packaging options and plans to use plastic bottles to mitigate the impact from 25% tariffs on aluminum imports.

"This morning's print reaffirms our confidence in KO's fundamentals despite a difficult macroeconomic backdrop," RBC Capital analyst Nik Modi said. "KO reiterated top- and bottom-line guidance, which should be viewed as favorable in this environment."

Its quarterly revenue fell marginally to $11.22 billion, compared with expectations of a 0.84% fall to $11.14 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Excluding items, the company earned 73 cents per share, beating estimates of 71 cents.

Coca-Cola's first-quarter overall average selling prices rose 5%, while unit case volumes increased 2%.

Its slightly pricey products have so far seen stable demand globally despite price hikes in highly inflationary markets such as Argentina and Latin America.

Still, volumes in its North America market fell 3%, mostly due to Hispanic consumers in the U.S. and Mexico boycotting the company's legacy brands after a viral video of Coca-Cola laying off Latino staff and reporting them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a time when Trump has kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown.

Reuters in February found no public evidence that the company had reported its migrant employees to ICE.

Coca-Cola executives said on Tuesday the videos circulating were "completely false" but had impacted its business.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)