NEW YORK, June 27, 2026, 14:04 EDT
- The Coca-Cola Company NYSE:KO rose 2.75% to finish at $82.63 on Friday as volume hit 53.36 million shares.
- About 68% of the stock’s gain from the June 18 prior close showed up on Friday. The State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLP) climbed 1.7% from the same start.
- KO holders got a couple of events before the July 3 NYSE holiday: the company had a June 25 appeals-court hearing and swapped out its North America leader.
No trading on the New York Stock Exchange Saturday. The exchange shows 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET as its standard trading window, but marks Friday, July 3, as closed for Independence Day observed. Traders get four normal sessions this week.
Coca-Cola climbed at the end of the week. Shares went from $79.39 at the June 18 close to $82.63 Friday. Most of the gain—$2.21 of $3.24—came in the last session, which also saw about 42% of the week’s reported volume.
KO stood out as a safer play than the broader staples sector. XLP went from $83.30 up to $84.71 over that period, gaining 1.7%. The S&P 500 lost 2% for the week, according to NYSE. KO was still 1.7% off its 52-week high at $84.04.
Tax, not soda sales, was the issue. Bloomberg Tax said a federal appeals panel seemed open to Coca-Cola’s arguments in its dispute with the IRS over profit allocations and a retroactive accounting change. The June 25 hearing happened at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Miami.
Piper Sandler’s Michael Lavery says judges “appeared open to Coca-Cola’s claim that it did not get proper due process when the IRS changed its approach,” according to citybiz. Piper Sandler is staying Overweight on the stock, citybiz reported. citybiz
Coca-Cola’s earlier IRS deal had already expired, tax analyst Robert Willens said to Bloomberg Tax, suggesting the judges “do not seem to have registered” that aspect. A decision could take months. Bloomberg Tax
Coca-Cola’s scale doesn’t make these sums small. The company said in its first-quarter filing that it paid roughly $6.0 billion related to the 2007-2009 tax years and might get a refund if it wins on appeal. It also reported potential outstanding tax and interest liability for 2010-2025 at about $14 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025.
Coca-Cola reported a $520 million tax reserve related to the case. The company held $13.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, and marketable securities, plus $6.6 billion in undrawn backup credit as of April 3. The $14 billion total is about 3.9% of its market cap on Friday.
Coca-Cola is changing up its management. The company said June 25 that Jennifer Mann will leave her roles as executive vice president and head of the North America operating unit on Aug. 1. CFO John Murphy is taking over that unit for now. CEO Henrique Braun said, “I am grateful to Jennifer for her tremendous contributions.” The Coca-Cola Company
North America still matters for Coca-Cola. The company said unit case volume for North America was up 4% in the first quarter, with price/mix higher by 1%. Operating income rose 20%. Comparable currency-neutral operating income gained 17%.
Peer action was scattered Friday, with KO out front. PepsiCo Inc. NASDAQ:PEP added 1.34%, Starbucks Corp. NASDAQ:SBUX gained 1.40%. Mondelez International Inc. NASDAQ:MDLZ dropped 0.67%. The S&P 500 edged down 0.05%, Dow off 0.09%.
The price target gap looks pretty slim. According to Google Finance, 17 analysts have an average 12-month target on KO at $87.47. The high side is $92, with the low at $76. KO ended Friday below that level, with the average target pointing to just a 5.9% gain.
