Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Aug 7, 2026
Coca Cola Co (KO)
A forensic read on Coca Cola Co built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
A · High-quality compounder
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
9.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
26.1
P / E (ttm)
40.7%
ROE
$374.5B
Market cap
2.44%
Dividend yield
1.9%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Coca Cola Co earns an A (High-quality compounder) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 9.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
180% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $9.5B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 180% of free cash flow. More than free cash flow generated — and beyond operating cash too, so the extra is coming from debt or cash reserves, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $279M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 185%.
0.75×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, operating cash flow was 0.75× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
+13.0%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.0% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 9% of net operating assets.
-0.3%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed -1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (-0.3%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($746M) are about offsetting stock comp ($279M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
$27M
FY2020–FY2024
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$47.94B
Revenue Growth YoY+1.9%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+3.7%
Net Margin27.3%
Free Cash Flow$5.30B
Return on Equity40.7%
Debt / Equity1.37x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Coca Cola Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 7, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Goodwill impairments.Took $27M of goodwill writedowns across 3 years (FY2020 ($14M), FY2021 ($7M), FY2024 ($6M)) — about 0% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Coca Cola Co (KO) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy