Pedestrians walk past a Coca-Cola logo (Anthony Wallace/Getty Images)

COLA WARS

Coca-Cola tops Wall Street estimates, boasts more pricing power than Pepsi

The company moved more volume at higher prices in Q4, beating on the top and bottom lines.

2/11/25 8:52AM

Coca-Cola Co. topped Wall Street profit estimates last quarter as consumers guzzled down more of its beverages while paying a higher price for them, sending shares more than 3% higher in premarket trading.

The Sprite and Coke maker reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.55 for the fourth quarter ahead of the open on Tuesday, above estimates of $0.52 according to analysts polled by Bloomberg. Sales of over $11.5 billion also topped forecasts.

Going forward, the company said it expects adjusted earnings per share to grow between 2% to 3% this year, with organic revenue growth of 5% to 6%, trailing analysts’ estimates for 7.1%.

Coca-Cola’s price mix — a metric of what the firm charges across a variety of its offerings — jumped 9% for the quarter, while global volume rose 2%. The ability to push price without seeing volumes falter stands in stark contrast to its chief rival, PepsiCo, which posted a sales miss last week and said it will focus on value with fewer-count multipacks, but likely won’t lower prices across the board.

Both companies have lagged the overall market, though Coke has fared better, up 8% in the last year as Pepsi has plunged 15%. The S&P 500, meanwhile, has rallied nearly 21%.

Kelly Cloonan is a journalist who has written for Business Insider and Fast Company.

Jon Keegan7h

Snap shoots up 25% on $400 million deal with Perplexity, strong earnings

Snap shares shot up as much as 25% in after-hours trading on the release of third-quarter earnings that beat estimates, as well as the announcement of a big deal with AI startup Perplexity to integrate its “conversational AI search” into Snap products.

Some highlights:

Revenue came in at $1.51 billion, up 10% year on year (compared to Wall Street’s estimate of $1.49 billion).
Adjusted EBITDA was $182 million (estimate: $124 million).
Global monthly active users hit 943 million, up 7% year on year.
Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million “over one year, through a combination of cash and equity, as we achieve global rollout” of its conversational search engine within Snapchat.

The company also announced a $500 million stock buyback program.

Snap shares rocket 25% on strong forecast, $400 million Perplexity deal

Some highlights:

Revenue came in at $1.51 billion, up 10% year on year (compared to Wall Street’s estimate of $1.49 billion).
Adjusted EBITDA was $182 million (estimate: $124 million).
Global monthly active users hit 943 million, up 7% year on year.
Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million “over one year, through a combination of cash and equity, as we achieve global rollout” of its conversational search engine within Snapchat.

The company also announced a $500 million stock buyback program.

Duolingo dives on Q3 user growth miss, uninspiring guidance

Duolingo has run into stiff headwinds this year.

Matt Phillips7h

Luke Kawa7h

Nvidia slumps as Jensen Huang warns that China “will win” the AI race versus the US

Nvidia tumbled late in the session Wednesday after the Financial Times released an article in which CEO Jensen Huang says that “China is going to win the AI race” because it has a more favorable regulatory environment and cheaper access to power.

Reading between the lines here, I’d say the main takeaway for traders is what’s left unsaid at the end of this sentence: “China is going to win the AI race” — without having access to Nvidia’s flagship processors, or even wanting its nerfed chips!

Not exactly a signal that Nvidia’s hardware is as all-important and synonymous with success in AI as its stock price and revenue trajectory would suggest it is!

President Trump didn’t discuss Blackwell chips with Chinese President Xi at last week’s meeting, being convinced by advisers to keep that off the table. And while Nvidia has the all-clear to sell its H20 chips to China again, China’s internet regulator apparently instructed its leading tech companies not to buy them, preferring to bolster its domestic capabilities.

Max Knoblauch7h

Lucid dips as it lowers its full-year production forecast

Shares of Lucid are down more than 4% in after-hours trading on Wednesday following the luxury EV maker’s third-quarter earnings results.

Lucid, which delivered 47% more vehicles in Q3 than in the same period last year, posted an adjusted loss per share of $2.65, compared to the $2.29 loss per share Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet expected.

The company also:

Booked $336.6 million in revenue, up 68% from last year and above the consensus estimate of $349.5 million.
Updated its full-year production outlook to 18,000 vehicles, the bottom of its previous range of between 18,000 and 20,000 vehicles. Wall Street expected the company to build 18,940 vehicles on the year.

Lucid shares sold off heavily during Q3 as the company executed a 1-for-10 reverse stock split that took effect in early September. The stock remains lower compared to its highs earlier this year and is down more than 40% year to date as of Wednesday’s close. That’s significantly underperforming larger rivals like Rivian and Tesla.

J. Edward Moreno7h

Lyft bookings top estimates as revenue grows

Lyft swung to a third-quarter profit, boosted by 11% revenue growth, as bookings topped Wall Street’s expectations.

Shares were up 2.7% in recent after-hours trading.

The company reported earnings per share of $0.11, compared with a loss of $0.03 in the year-earlier quarter. Gross bookings came in at $4.8 billion, slightly more than the $4.7 billion the Street was expecting. It reported revenue of $1.7 billion, in line with analysts’ expectations.

Lyft’s top competitor, Uber, reported revenue numbers on Tuesday that beat expectations, though its stock still took a dip on the news.