TacticScaleWhat Coca-Cola Does & How It Makes Money (KO)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Coca-Cola's latest reported financials
Global maker of Coca-Cola and hundreds of other non-alcoholic drinks. It mostly sells beverage concentrates and syrups to a network of independent bottling partners, which package and distribute the drinks, and it sells fountain syrups directly to restaurants and convenience stores.
How Coca-Cola makes money
It mostly sells beverage concentrates and syrups to a network of independent bottling partners, which package and distribute the drinks, and it sells fountain syrups directly to restaurants and convenience stores. Some revenue also comes from its own bottling and distribution operations and from finished products sold through distributors, wholesalers and retailers.
What Coca-Cola does
Founded in 1886 and headquartered in Atlanta, The Coca-Cola Company is one of the best-known consumer brands in the world. Its lineup goes well beyond its flagship cola. It covers sparkling soft drinks like Sprite, Fanta and Fresca, waters like Dasani, smartwater and Topo Chico, sports drinks like Powerade and BODYARMOR, juices like Simply and Minute Maid, and coffee and tea brands like Costa, Georgia, Gold Peak and Fuze Tea. It also owns fairlife dairy and regional favorites such as Thums Up in India and I LOHAS in Japan. The company sells concentrates and syrups to a worldwide network of independent bottling partners rather than making every bottle itself. Those partners handle much of the heavy manufacturing and distribution, while Coca-Cola focuses on brand building and marketing. Its fountain business supplies restaurants and convenience stores directly. Because people buy these everyday drinks steadily, the company sits in the consumer defensive sector.
Products & services
- Coca-Cola (incl. Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar)
- Sprite
- Fanta
- Minute Maid
- Powerade
- Dasani
What is Coca-Cola worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Coca-Cola's most-likely value is about $75 versus a recent price near $88 (15% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$38) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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