Coca-Cola Co, the world's biggest soft-drink maker, on Wednesday posted a 10 percent rise in quarterly profit boosted by its PowerAde sports drink and Dasani bottled water brands and strong growth in China, Russia and Turkey.
Still, sales were flat due to a change in the way Coke records revenue from its Spanish business. The Atlanta-based company, which rolled out a flurry of new products in the past year, reported first-quarter earnings of $1.1 billion, or 47 cents a share, from $1 billion, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding charges to write down the value of its Asian bottling operations, quarterly earnings were 49 cents a share, a penny above analysts' average estimates according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue for the first quarter was little changed at $5.2 billion, slightly below Wall Street expectation of $5.3 billion. Sales were flat due to a change in Spain where Coke now accounts for only concentrate sales to bottlers and not sales of the finished product.
The company posted a 5 percent rise in unit case volume, a key sales measure in the beverage industry, led by continued strong growth in key emerging markets, including China, Russia, Brazil and Turkey. India, Philippines, Japan and Germany continued to be sore spots with volume declines.
While carbonated beverages posted a 3 percent gain in overall unit case volumes in the first quarter, noncarbonated beverages grew by 11 percent. In Japan, unit case volume decreased 2 percent, primarily due to a decline in its Georgia Coffee brand.
Coca-Cola has said it targeted growth of 6 percent to 8 percent in operating earnings and 3 percent to 4 percent in unit volume.
The beverage company said it intends to repurchase $2 billion to $2.5 billion of its stock for the full year.
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