Coca-Cola Earnings: Drinks Sold Up 5% Worldwide, Flat in North America
Coca-Cola sold 5% more drinks worldwide in its third quarter of 2026, but none more in North America, about 40% of its revenue though a smaller share of its drinks. The growth came from countries led by India, China, Mexico and Brazil, and the company raised its 2026 profit forecast for the third time this year.
The short answer. In the three months to October 2, Coca-Cola’s drinks sold more in every region except North America, where volume was flat. Changes in prices and in the mix of what people bought added only 1% to sales. Its drinks are sold in more than 200 countries and territories. In our reading, that makes the figures a broad gauge of where people are buying more of an everyday product. This quarter the US and Canada were not among those places, and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, up 16%, grew fastest of the drinks the release lists. Our count of 17 quarters of its reports adds that volume has grown faster than price and mix only in 2026.
Coca-Cola's third quarter of 2026 at a glance
What we calculated
- Drinks sold grew faster than price and mix in only 3 of 17 quarters, all in 2026: counted from each results release, Q3 2022 to Q3 2026.
- Q3 2026’s 4-point lead of drinks sold over price and mix is the widest of the three quarters in which drinks sold led: same count.
- Q3 2026’s 1% from price and mix ties the smallest of the 17: same count.
- North America was about 40% of Coca-Cola’s revenue in the third quarter of 2026: the region’s $5.39 billion divided by the company’s $13.38 billion. By drinks it is much smaller; the US alone was 16% of worldwide volume in 2025, per the annual report.
- Debt of $41.6 billion on October 2, down from $45.5 billion at the end of 2025: short-term loans, debt due within a year and long-term debt added from the balance sheet.
- The raised forecast’s low end leaves the fourth quarter at least $0.59 of adjusted earnings per share (profit divided by the number of shares), against $0.58: $3.33 for 2026 minus $2.74 already earned.
On this page
Where is Coca-Cola selling more drinks?
In every region except North America. The others each sold at least 5% more drinks than a year earlier, while the US and Canada together sold the same amount.
Coca-Cola’s bottlers are the companies that make and deliver many of its drinks. The company counts what it and they sell in unit cases, each equal to 24 eight-ounce servings. The count covers every brand, from Coke and Sprite to water, juice and coffee, and it grew 5% in the quarter. The company’s release says growth was “led by India, China, Mexico and Brazil.” The count shows how much was sold, not whether more people are drinking.
Show the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Latin America | 6% |
| Asia Pacific | 6% |
| Europe, Middle East & Africa | 5% |
| Worldwide | 5% |
| North America | 0% |
North America is the exception, and it is not a small one. It brought in about 40% of the company’s revenue this quarter (our division of the region table in the full results filed with the SEC). Measured in drinks the region is much smaller, since the US alone was 16% of the company’s worldwide unit case volume in 2025, according to its annual report. Its volume this quarter was even, the release says. Growth in the Coca-Cola brand, which the company calls Trademark Coca-Cola, was offset by a decline in water, sports, coffee and tea.
Flat does not mean shrinking. North America’s revenue still grew 3%, and its operating income rose 5%, that being the profit from running the business. Coca-Cola also gained share of what shoppers spend on nonalcoholic drinks sold ready to drink there. The chart below shows the stall after two stronger quarters. The release does not say why water, sports drinks, coffee and tea fell there; the earnings call later on October 27 may.
Show the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Q3 2025 | 0% |
| Q4 2025 | 1% |
| Q1 2026 | 4% |
| Q2 2026 | 3% |
| Q3 2026 | 0% |
Latin America, by contrast, sold 6% more drinks, with growth in every kind of drink. Coca-Cola gained share of spending there too, led by Brazil and Mexico, and it credits a campaign for its 100 years in Mexico with part of the volume.
Is Coca-Cola selling more drinks or charging more?
Mostly selling more. Volume rose 5%, while changes in prices and in the mix of what people bought added just 1% to revenue.
Coca-Cola reports two growth rates that answer this question. Unit case volume is how much more its system sold. Price and mix is what price changes, plus shifts toward pricier or cheaper packs, products and countries, added to revenue. In the third quarter, price and mix grew 1%, “primarily driven by pricing actions in the marketplace, partially offset by unfavorable mix,” the release says.
That balance is new. We lined up 17 Coca-Cola results releases, from the third quarter of 2022 to this one. From then to the end of 2025, price and mix grew faster than volume in every quarter but the last, a tie. In all three quarters of 2026, volume grew faster. In our reading, part of that is an easy comparison. A year earlier, Coca-Cola sold just 1% more drinks while price and mix added 6%, according to its third quarter 2025 release.
Show the data
| Category | Price and mix | Drinks sold (unit case volume) |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2022 | 12% | 4% |
| Q4 2022 | 12% | -1% |
| Q1 2023 | 11% | 3% |
| Q2 2023 | 10% | 0% |
| Q3 2023 | 9% | 2% |
| Q4 2023 | 9% | 2% |
| Q1 2024 | 13% | 1% |
| Q2 2024 | 9% | 2% |
| Q3 2024 | 10% | -1% |
| Q4 2024 | 9% | 2% |
| Q1 2025 | 5% | 2% |
| Q2 2025 | 6% | -1% |
| Q3 2025 | 6% | 1% |
| Q4 2025 | 1% | 1% |
| Q1 2026 | 2% | 3% |
| Q2 2026 | 2% | 5% |
| Q3 2026 | 1% | 5% |
The chart compares two growth rates, and this quarter the gap between them, 4 percentage points, was the widest in volume’s favor. They are not two slices of revenue. Most of Coca-Cola’s own revenue, 59% in 2025 per its annual report, comes from concentrate, the syrup base it ships to bottlers. Those shipments can run ahead of or behind the drinks the bottlers sell.
The pattern is also uneven by region. Latin America still got much of its growth from prices, with price and mix up 7%. In Asia Pacific, price and mix fell 2%, because the company says a less favorable mix of what it sold outweighed its pricing actions.
How fast is Coke Zero Sugar growing?
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar sold 16% more, against 5% for the whole Coca-Cola brand. Sports drinks were the main kind of drink that sold less.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar grew 16%, against 5% for the Coca-Cola brand as a whole, “both driven by growth across all geographic operating segments,” the release says. The chart has the other kinds of drink.
Show the data
| Category | Change |
|---|---|
| Coca-Cola Zero Sugar | +16% |
| Water | +8% |
| Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Light | +6% |
| Coca-Cola brand (Trademark Coca-Cola) | +5% |
| Sparkling flavors | +3% |
| Juice, dairy and plant-based | 0% |
| Coffee | 0% |
| Tea | 0% |
| Sports drinks | -3% |
Water grew 8%. Sports drinks fell 3%, because a decline in Asia Pacific outweighed growth in Europe and Latin America, the release says.
Juice, dairy and plant-based drinks were flat. The company says growth in fairlife milk, Maaza and Minute Maid was offset by the sale of its Nigerian finished drinks business in the fourth quarter of 2025. Fairlife grew even though a ransomware attack halted its US plants in July. By late July most production had resumed, and the company said the attack was not reasonably likely to have a material, meaning significant, effect on its results (company statement).
Did Coca-Cola beat earnings expectations?
Yes on both sales and profit, measured against the FactSet estimates published before the report. Part of the sales beat came from shipment timing.
Revenue came in at $13.4 billion, above the $12.92 billion consensus, the average analyst forecast, compiled by data firm FactSet. One caveat sits inside that number. Concentrate shipments to bottlers ran 2 points ahead of the drinks they sold, which the company puts down to “the timing of concentrate shipments.” In July, finance chief John Murphy had said he expected them to lag behind this quarter (second quarter call transcript).
Profit for shareholders, which includes one-time items, was $4.01 billion, against a FactSet consensus of $3.79 billion. We use that measure because it is the profit estimate we found with its compiler named.
The company’s adjusted earnings per share rose 11%. That measure, which it calls comparable, divides its profit without one-time items by its shares. Currency moves added 2 points to that growth, a little less than the company expected in July.
Its adjusted operating margin, the share of sales left after running costs, also rose. Every figure is in the table below, where non-GAAP marks the company’s adjusted measures.
| Measure, Q3 2026 | Result | Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Net revenues | $13.4 billion, +7% | $12.46 billion |
| Organic revenues (non-GAAP) | +7% | +6% |
| Concentrate sales | +7% | 0% |
| Price/mix | +1% | +6% |
| Currency effect on revenue | +1 point | 0 |
| Unit case volume | +5% | +1% |
| Net income attributable to shareowners | $4.01 billion, +8% | $3.70 billion |
| EPS (earnings per share) | $0.93, +8% | $0.86 |
| Comparable EPS (non-GAAP) | $0.91, +11% | $0.82 |
| Operating margin | 33.4% | 32.0% |
| Comparable operating margin (non-GAAP) | 32.9% | 31.9% |
| Free cash flow, cash left after investment, year to date (non-GAAP) | $11.4 billion | $2.4 billion (after a $6.1 billion fairlife payment) |
Source: Coca-Cola third quarter 2026 and third quarter 2025 results releases and the third quarter 2026 statements filed with the SEC; quarter ended October 2, 2026 against September 26, 2025. Organic revenues leave out currency moves and businesses bought or sold.
Did Coca-Cola raise its guidance?
Yes, for the third time this year. Coca-Cola now expects its adjusted profit per share to grow at least 11% in 2026.
The forecast, which companies call guidance, started 2026 at 7% to 8% growth and was raised in April and again in July, to 9% to 10%.
This raise does not come from currency. The help Coca-Cola expects from currency is unchanged, and the growth it expects before currency and businesses bought or sold rose to at least 9%. It also trimmed its expected tax rate and raised its free cash flow forecast; the table below has each step.
Show the data
| 2026 forecast | February | April | July | October |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comparable EPS growth | 7% to 8% | 8% to 9% | 9% to 10% | At least 11% |
| Comparable currency neutral EPS growth, excluding acquisitions and divestitures | 5% to 6% | 6% to 7% | 7% to 8% | At least 9% |
| Organic revenue growth | 4% to 5% | 4% to 5% | Approx. 5% | At least 5% |
| Free cash flow | Approx. $12.2 billion | Approx. $12.2 billion | Approx. $12.4 billion | At least $13.0 billion |
| Underlying effective tax rate (expected tax as a share of profit) | 20.9% | 19.9% | 19.9% | 19.7% |
Source: Coca-Cola results releases of February 10, April 28, July 28 and October 27, 2026. Fourth quarter 2026 considerations (October): currency adds about 4 points to comparable EPS growth and acquisitions and divestitures take off about 3, assuming the Africa bottler sale closes in the quarter.
At the forecast’s low end, the arithmetic leaves at least $0.59 a share for the fourth quarter, against $0.58 a year earlier. That is our calculation (method below, from the full year 2025 release), and it marks a floor only; the company gives no figure for the quarter itself. That quarter also has six fewer days than in 2025, and the company expects currency to help and the businesses it is selling to weigh on it.
That sale, of a controlling stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa to Coca-Cola HBC (announced in October 2025), is part of what the company calls refranchising. That means handing its own bottling plants to independent bottlers. For 2027 it flags an 8% hit to revenue from businesses sold, but only about 2% to adjusted earnings per share.
The annual report explains the gap. In its words, finished drink operations such as bottling “generate higher net operating revenues but lower gross profit margins than concentrate operations,” meaning a smaller share of their sales is left after the cost of making the drinks. Murphy said in July that the company expects its fourth quarter margins “to benefit from the refranchising” of the African bottler. Full 2027 guidance comes with the fourth quarter results.
How much is Coca-Cola’s dividend?
The board declared a regular dividend of 53 cents a share on October 15, payable December 15.
The dividend notice goes to shareholders on the company’s books on December 1 (how those dates work is in our guide to ex-dividend, record and payment dates). The full statements filed with the SEC on October 27 fill in the rest. In the first nine months of 2026, Coca-Cola paid $6.84 billion in dividends and spent $900 million buying back its own stock.
Its average diluted share count for the quarter was essentially unchanged at 4.31 billion, a count that includes shares promised to employees.
Debt stood at $41.6 billion on October 2, down from $45.5 billion at the end of 2025 (our sum of the borrowing lines in the third quarter statements).
What to watch
- Why North America sold no more drinks: the earnings call of October 27, whose transcript Coca-Cola posts on its investor site within 24 hours.
- Whether shipments that ran ahead of drinks sold even out: the fourth quarter results, early in 2027.
- When the Africa bottler sale closes, expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 subject to approvals: the company’s closing announcement or its fourth quarter results.
- The 2027 forecast: Coca-Cola says it will give it with its fourth quarter results.
How we counted
We read the company-wide row of the “Revenues and Volume” table in each Coca-Cola results release from the third quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2026, 17 releases in all. For each quarter we compared the unit case volume change with the price/mix change, both against the same quarter a year earlier. The two are growth rates, not parts of revenue. Unit case volume is computed on average daily sales, so calendar days do not affect it.
North America’s share divides the region’s reported net operating revenues by the company-wide total in the third quarter 2026 table. For the fourth quarter, at least 11% growth on 2025 comparable earnings per share of $3.00 gives at least $3.33. We subtracted the first three quarters of 2026 ($0.86, $0.97 and $0.91). Guidance and quarterly figures are rounded, so the result can move by a cent. Debt adds loans and notes payable, current maturities of long-term debt and long-term debt.
Frequently asked questions
Did Coca-Cola beat earnings?
Yes, against FactSet’s estimates. Revenue of $13.4 billion topped the $12.92 billion consensus, though part of that came from concentrate shipments running ahead of drinks sold. Profit for shareholders of $4.01 billion, which includes one-time items, topped the $3.79 billion consensus. Adjusted earnings per share rose 11% to $0.91.
Is Coca-Cola raising prices in 2026?
Coca-Cola says pricing actions in the marketplace lifted revenue in the third quarter of 2026, partly offset by changes in what it sold. Together, price and mix added 1% to revenue; the release gives no separate figure for pricing. The volume of drinks sold rose 5%.
How much did Coke Zero Sugar grow?
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar sold 16% more in the third quarter of 2026, with growth in every region, against 5% for the Coca-Cola brand as a whole.
When is Coca-Cola’s next dividend payment?
December 15, 2026. The regular dividend of 53 cents a share, declared October 15, goes to shareholders on the books on December 1.
What is Coca-Cola’s 2026 earnings guidance?
At least 11% growth in comparable earnings per share, its profit per share without one-time items, over 2025’s $3.00. It also expects at least 5% organic revenue growth, which leaves out currency moves and businesses bought or sold, and at least $13.0 billion of free cash flow.
Sources
- Coca-Cola third quarter 2026 results release (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola (KO) overview (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola (KO) financials (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola dividend declaration, October 15, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola fourth quarter and full year 2025 results release (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola third quarter 2025 results release (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola agreement to sell control of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, October 2025 (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola statement on fairlife operations, July 27, 2026 (StockTitan)
- Ex-dividend, record and payment dates (StockTitan)
- Coca-Cola third quarter 2026 results release (Coca-Cola investor site)
- Coca-Cola third quarter 2026 results with financial statements, Exhibit 99.1 (SEC)
- Coca-Cola annual report on Form 10-K for 2025 (SEC)
- Coca-Cola second quarter 2026 earnings call transcript (Coca-Cola investor site)
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