KO Coca Cola Company

By Chelsey Dulaney 

Coca-Cola Co. on Tuesday reported better-than-expected profit and revenue for its fourth quarter, as higher volume and pricing helped offset the impact of weakness abroad.

The beverage giant also said it is accelerating its bottler refranchising efforts. Coke spent billions buying back bottling assets, but has reversed course recently as part of its cost-cutting effort.

In the fourth quarter, world-wide volumes grew 3%, driven again by noncarbonated drinks like tea, bottled water and ultra-filtered nutrient-rich milk, which improved 6%. Soda volumes rose 2% world-wide.

Overall, Coke posted a profit of $1.24 billion, or 28 cents a share, up from $770 million, or 17 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding certain items, per-share earnings were 38 cents, edging in above the 37 cents analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast.

The company said foreign exchange shaved 10 percentage points off its per-share earnings in the quarter.

Revenue fell 8% to $10 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast revenue of $9.91 billion.

The company posted 3% volume growth in North America, where the company has been able to raise prices in the U.S. and steer consumers to smaller packages that cost more per ounce.

But weakness overseas continued to weigh on its results, with key countries such as Russia and Brazil in recession, consumer demand weak in Europe and Japan, and China's economy slowing. Weakening foreign currencies also are hitting Coke, which generates about half its sales abroad but translates results into dollars.

For the new year, Coca-Cola said it expects both revenue and per-share earnings to grow 4% to 6% excluding the impacts of special items and currency fluctuations.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2016 07:30 ET (12:30 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.