Comparing CocaCola (NYSE:KO) & Molson Coors Beverage (NYSE:TAP)

CocaCola (NYSE:KO) and Molson Coors Beverage (NYSE:TAP) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.3% of CocaCola shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.5% of Molson Coors Beverage shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of CocaCola shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Molson Coors Beverage shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for CocaCola and Molson Coors Beverage, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CocaCola	0	3	14	1	2.89
Molson Coors Beverage	4	11	4	0	2.00

CocaCola presently has a consensus price target of $95.76, suggesting a potential upside of 8.26%. Molson Coors Beverage has a consensus price target of $44.06, suggesting a potential upside of 19.52%. Given Molson Coors Beverage’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Molson Coors Beverage is more favorable than CocaCola.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CocaCola and Molson Coors Beverage”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CocaCola	$50.13 billion	7.59	$13.11 billion	$3.33	26.56
Molson Coors Beverage	$13.04 billion	0.53	-$2.14 billion	($11.54)	-3.19

CocaCola has higher revenue and earnings than Molson Coors Beverage. Molson Coors Beverage is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CocaCola, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

CocaCola has a beta of 0.34, suggesting that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Molson Coors Beverage has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

CocaCola pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Molson Coors Beverage pays an annual dividend of $1.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. CocaCola pays out 63.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Molson Coors Beverage pays out -16.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. CocaCola has increased its dividend for 64 consecutive years and Molson Coors Beverage has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Molson Coors Beverage is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares CocaCola and Molson Coors Beverage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CocaCola	28.56%	39.38%	13.18%
Molson Coors Beverage	-17.83%	9.46%	4.25%

Summary

CocaCola beats Molson Coors Beverage on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CocaCola

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks, sparkling flavors; water, sports, coffee, and tea; juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverages; and other beverages. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores. The company sells its products under the Coca-Cola, Diet Coke/Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, caffeine free Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Fanta Orange, Fanta Zero Orange, Fanta Zero Sugar, Fanta Apple, Sprite, Sprite Zero Sugar, Simply Orange, Simply Apple, Simply Grapefruit, Fresca, Schweppes, Thums Up, Aquarius, Ayataka, BODYARMOR, Ciel, Costa, Dasani, dogadan, FUZE TEA, Georgia, glacéau smartwater, glacéau vitaminwater, Gold Peak, Ice Dew, I LOHAS, Powerade, Topo Chico, AdeS, Del Valle, fairlife, innocent, Minute Maid, and Minute Maid Pulpy brands. It operates through a network of independent bottling partners, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, as well as through bottling and distribution operators. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Molson Coors Beverage

Molson Coors Beverage Company manufactures, markets, and sells beer and other malt beverage products under various brands in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers flavored malt beverages including hard seltzers, craft, spirits and energy, and ready to drink beverages. It provides its products under Aspall Cider, Blue Moon, Coors Original, Five Trail, Hop Valley brands, Leinenkugel’s, Madri, Miller Genuine Draft, Molson Ultra, Sharp’s, Staropramen, and Vizzy Hard Seltzer above premier brands; Bergenbier, Borsodi, Carling, Coors Banquet, Coors Light, Jelen, Kamenitza, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, and Niksicko, Ozujsko under the premium brands; and Branik, Icehouse, Keystone, Miller High Life, Milwaukee’s Best, and Steel Reserve under the economy brands. The company was formerly known as Molson Coors Brewing Company and changed its name to Molson Coors Beverage Company in January 2020. Molson Coors Beverage Company was founded in 1774 and is based in Golden, Colorado.