Coca-Cola (KO) has new complaints on its hands as Greenpeace Africa members have staged protests in South Africa. The issue these protestors have with Coca-Cola is the massive amount of plastic bottles that it produces. Instead, they want the company to embrace glass and tin when producing bottles for its soft drinks.
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The Greenpeace activists pointed to the 120 billion plastic bottles that Coca-Cola produces each year as a major concern for the environment. According to their claims, only about 9% of these bottles are recycled, leaving many of them in landfills, oceans, and littered around the world.
The protest against Coca-Cola comes ahead of negotiations between world delegates in Geneva this August. This could see them argue for a limit on plastic production. The idea was floated during a meeting last year, but no conclusion was reached.
What Does This Mean for KO Stock?
Right now, these activists’ efforts have little to no effect on Coca-Cola. If they want change at the company, they might be better off becoming activist investors and promoting changes at shareholders meetings. Until then, or a potential decision from world leaders, Coca-Cola is going to keep on producing plastic bottles for its billions of customers.
To hammer this point home, Coca-Cola stock was only down 0.2% as of Thursday afternoon. The stock has rallied 15.26% year-to-date and 11.25% over the past 12 months.
Is KO Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Coca-Cola is Strong Buy, based on 15 Buy and a single Hold rating over the past three months. With that comes an average KO stock price target of $79.33, representing a potential 11.4% upside for the shares.
