Investopedia: Coca-Cola - A Great Company, An Iffy Stock

All of the paeans to Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) have some basis in truth. Coca-Cola is indeed a remarkable company and a living case study in the value of strong brands and knowing the customer's tastes and expectations. But Coca-Cola is not necessarily the safe stock that everyone assumes it to be. While Coca-Cola will certainly be around for decades to come, paying too much for even a great company's stock can erode a lot of the safety that is supposed to go with the strategy. 

A Respectable Third Quarter  
Coca-Cola basically did as analysts expected it would in the third quarter. Reported revenue rose 45% this quarter, with the overwhelming majority of that "growth" coming from the addition of Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE). Global case volume growth was about 4% and factor in some modest price increase, Coca-Cola's organic growth rate looks like it was in the range of 6-8%. Encouragingly, while growth in North American remains sluggish (not unlike what rival PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) has reported), emerging market growth is pretty healthy and especially good in Latin America.

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