How Much Upside Is Left In Coca-Cola Stock After Its Run?

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Coca-Cola (KO) stock returned 40.2% over the year to October 20, 2026, against 17.1% for the S&P 500. Buyers after that run appear to be counting on the company to keep selling more of drinks like Trademark Coca-Cola, and to hold its net margin near the highest level of the past ten years. So if you buy at today’s price, how much more could the shares make you over three years?

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How Much More Could Coca-Cola Shares Make You?

Under these assumptions, Coca-Cola stock would gain about 21.1% over three years, before dividends. This scenario grows revenue at a steady pace from the twelve months to July 3, 2026, and holds the P/E at today’s level. Both are Trefis assumptions rather than a forecast. Here is how Coca-Cola’s figures today compare with the projected numbers three years on:

Today In three years (scenario)
Revenue $50.1 billion $63.4 billion
Net margin 28.6% 27.3%
Earnings $14.3 billion $17.3 billion
P/E 28.1 28.1
Share price $93.49 $113.20

All of that gain relies on Coca-Cola increasing its sales. Revenue growth accounts for more than the entire upside, with part of those gains lost to a slightly lower net margin.

Coca-Cola’s revenue grew 6.5% over the twelve months to July 3, 2026, accelerating from the 1.3% and 5.3% rates of the prior two twelve-month periods. The scenario models a pace a quarter higher, at 8.1% a year, so with margin and P/E as modeled, the shares reach this mark only if Coca-Cola expands its sales faster than it has lately.

Coca-Cola Sells More, But Below The Scenario’s Pace

Management said organic revenue grew 6% in the fiscal Q2 2026 quarter. With its marketing around the FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola expanded its Trademark Coca-Cola volume by 5%, marking its strongest performance in 17 years excluding the COVID recovery. New business is arriving too: KFC is switching its U.S. restaurants from PepsiCo to Coca-Cola as its drinks supplier, CNBC reported in mid-October.

Management’s own outlook is slower than the scenario, though the two rely on different measures. Management expects organic revenue growth of about 5% in fiscal 2026. The scenario instead assumes reported revenue growth of 8.1% a year, setting the pace a quarter above the latest twelve months’ rate rather than pulling from the guide.

How Does Coca-Cola’s Upside Change In Different Scenarios?

Here is the upside with one assumption changed at a time:

If instead Upside
Nothing changes (the scenario) 21.1%
Revenue growth of 6.1% a year instead of 8.1% 14.5%
Net margin of 24.5% in year three instead of 27.3% 8.5%
5 years at the same assumptions instead of 3 41.6%
First-year revenue growth of 5.0% (matching management’s fiscal 2026 organic growth guide) instead of 8.1% 17.6%

Coca-Cola is starting from an unusually high margin baseline. Its 28.6% net margin over the twelve months to July 3, 2026, marked its highest level at any fiscal quarter end in the past ten years. For comparison, the net margin averaged 24.5% across the twelve fiscal quarter ends from June 2023 to April 2026.

If revenue growth slowed to 1.5% a year, compared with the 6.5% Coca-Cola delivered over the latest twelve months, the share price would end the three years where it started. The net margin could fall to 22.6%, matching its level in fiscal 2024, with the same result. A drop in the P/E to 23.2 would also produce the same flat outcome, compared with the stock’s average of 24.8 across its last 12 fiscal quarter ends.

Coca-Cola’s net margin is already sitting at a ten-year high, and its sales are growing more slowly than the scenario assumes. The company’s organic revenue growth in its fiscal Q3 2026 report, expected on or around October 27, 2026, is the number to watch.

Does This Mean You Should Act On KO?

Our purpose is to inform you with unique data so you can make the right investment decisions. That said, betting on a single stock is always risky, no matter which direction you choose.

There is a smarter approach. Since its inception, the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio has returned 105%, beating the benchmark that combines the three major indices – the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000. And it did so without taking the concentrated risk that comes with do-it-yourself stock picking. If that is how you want to invest, the HQ Portfolio is the place to start.

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