No. of Recommendations: 16
Amazing vision and story indeed and our original 6.2% ownership of the business is now 9.3% with KO buybacks over the decades.
It certainly was an excellent business for many years after their very smart and confident purchase.
Alas, it has been just a cash cow for a long time now, more like a perpetual bond with coupons that (almost) keep up with inflation. Top line sales and earnings per share have both fallen in real terms about 2%/year in the last 15 years. Coke's buybacks in that time have been tax efficient, but otherwise really stupid capital allocation. A slowly shrinking firm at a perennially high valuation could easily have been beat with a dartboard.
Jim
