DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (CCE) reversed a prior-year loss in
the second quarter caused by a $5.3 billion write-down of its
licensing assets, while the company's latest results exceeded Wall
Street estimates as price hikes and cost cutting helped the bottom
line.
In addition, Coca-Cola Co.'s (KO) biggest bottler raised its
2009 earnings forecast by 20 cents to $1.44 to $1.49 a share to
reflect first-half results and moderating effects from currency
changes.
Soda bottlers have struggled in recent years with weakened
volumes as North Americans turned to other drinks, including
bottled water and vitamin-infused beverages. However, in recent
months sales of pricier noncarbonated soft drinks that companies
were looking to for growth, such as ready-to-drink teas, bottled
water and energy drinks also have weakened, pressuring beverage
companies and bottlers.
Coca-Cola Enterprises reported a profit of $313 million, or 64
cents a share, compared with a prior-year loss of $3.2 billion, or
$6.48 a share. Excluding restructuring charges and the write-down,
earnings rose to 67 cents from 56 cents.
Revenue dipped 0.5% to $5.91 billion, but excluding currency
effects rose 6%.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently were looking
for earnings of 51 cents on revenue of $5.99 billion.
Gross margin rose to 38.3% from 37.1% amid higher prices.
Volume fell 1% while prices increased 8%. In North America,
revenue increased 2.5% though volume fell 3.5%. However in Europe,
revenue declined 6.6% on currency impacts, masking 6.5% volume
growth.
Shares closed at $18.41 on Tuesday and didn't trade premarket.
The stock is up by roughly half this year.
-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2481;
tess.stynes@dowjones.com