Coca-Cola (KO) stock has risen 2.0% over the past week, 9.4% in the last month, and 17.0% over the past year, showing steady momentum. Wall Street’s analysts are strongly bullish, with a StrongBuy consensus and forecasting further gains over the next twelve months toward an average price target of $84.93.
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Analyst Peter Galbo of BofA Securities reiterated his Buy rating on KO on February 26, 2026, setting a price objective of $88.00, modestly above the current $80.47 level. His target suggests further upside as he remains confident in Coca-Cola’s earnings power and margin outlook heading into fiscal 2026.
Galbo’s report leans heavily on BofA’s global bottler checks, which link performance at eight of the nine publicly traded KO bottlers to Coca-Cola’s own results for better visibility into volume trends. He highlights strong historical correlations between KO’s reported unit case volumes and bottler metrics, particularly in Latin America and EMEA, suggesting the company’s underlying consumption remains well supported.
On profitability, Galbo maintains his FY26 EPS forecast of $3.23 for KO but adjusts the timing of quarterly gross margins, now modeling 63.1% in 1Q and 63.0% in 4Q. He expects the main driver of margin expansion in 2026 to be the mechanical benefit from the sale of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa and the divestiture of Nigerian juice and value-added dairy businesses, which should lift second-half margins.
Regionally, the analyst notes a third straight quarter of sequential improvement in North America and sees an easier comparison ahead in 1Q, while Latin America shows mixed trends with softness in Mexico offset by strength in Brazil. EMEA posts 2% unit case volume growth led by Africa and Eurasia/Middle East, and APAC faces a tougher comparison after a strong prior-year quarter, rounding out a picture of broadly resilient global demand for Coca-Cola’s portfolio. Never miss a stock rating. Find all the latest ratings on TipRanks’ Top Wall Street Analysts page.