Rising sales and prices boost Coca-Cola Company's performance beyond expectations "AI + Manufacturing" is expected to significantly increase profit margins.

The global beverage manufacturing industry giant Coca-Cola Company (KO.US) announced that both total revenue and profit exceeded the general expectations of Wall Street analysts. This is mainly because consumers are paying higher prices for the globally popular carbonated beverages, energy drinks, and fruit juices produced by the company, and sales have also increased on the basis of price hikes. In addition, the limited edition soda "Coca-Cola Company Y3000" manufactured using new artificial intelligence (AI) technology has achieved positive sales in markets such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. Some analysts suggest that the application of AI in manufacturing and research and development will become a key factor for Coca-Cola Company to enhance operational efficiency and market competitiveness. The global beverage giant headquartered in Atlanta produces the Coca-Cola Company series of carbonated beverages, as well as brands such as Sprite, Crush, and Minute Maid. Coca-Cola Company's adjusted earnings per share in the fourth quarter were 55 cents, exceeding the recent upwardly revised general EPS expectations of Wall Street analysts, which were 52 cents. Coca-Cola Company's Q4 total revenue reached $11.544 billion, higher than the Wall Street analysts' general expectations of $10.6 billion to $10.7 billion. Thanks to the better-than-expected performance, price increases, and sales growth, Coca-Cola Company's stock price rose over 4% in pre-market trading in New York on Tuesday. In the past year ending Monday, Coca-Cola Company's stock price has only risen by about 8%, mainly because since 2024, under high interest rates and continued inflation pressure, demand from low- and middle-income consumers in the United States has slowed down. In addition, the E. coli incident at McDonald's Corporation has greatly reduced the trust of some American consumers in McDonald's Corporation, one of Coca-Cola Company's largest corporate customers. As a result, Coca-Cola Company's stock price has significantly underperformed the US stock benchmark, the S&P 500 index, which rose by 21% during the same period. Although budget-conscious consumers have reduced their spending on purchasing large quantities of goods in supermarkets, the impact on Coca-Cola Company has been limited. While the pace of price increases has slowed down, the company has been actively raising prices on multiple products in multiple quarters. Coca-Cola Company stated that in the fourth quarter, their price mix (pricing on multiple products) increased by 9%, while overall sales volumes of all beverage brands unexpectedly increased by 2%, when Wall Street analysts generally expected a decline in sales volume. For the full year 2025 outlook, Coca-Cola Company expects adjusted earnings per share to increase by 2% to 3% and anticipates organic sales growth in the range of 5% to 6%, slightly lower than the analysts' general expectation of 7.1%. The company's growth comes as its strongest competitor, PepsiCo, Inc., reported last week that it failed to meet analysts' sales expectations and indicated that it would focus on value enhancement to attract more customers. However, PepsiCo, Inc. does not plan to lower prices for all products. In the second half of 2023, Coca-Cola Company introduced a limited edition soda made using new artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the "Coca-Cola Company Y3000," which was promoted as the "first futuristic flavor drink created by humans and AI together." This drink has been in high demand since its launch and sold out quickly in the Australian market during the Christmas shopping season in 2024. Artificial intelligence may significantly increase human productivity and is an important piece of the puzzle for the future prospects of traditional manufacturing industries. At least for Coca-Cola Company, this may be a future trend. In 2024, Coca-Cola Company signed a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement with OpenAI, a major shareholder and a leading AI player in the United States, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US), aiming to enhance the production efficiency and product development capabilities of Coca-Cola Company's flagship brand products and other beverages through generative AI technology. At the same time, they aim to drive global business innovation to boost profit margins and strive to develop and integrate AI applications across the company's various business lines, including marketing, product development, manufacturing, and supply chain areas. Looking ahead to Coca-Cola Company's future trends, some analysts suggest that the application of AI in manufacturing and research and development will be a key factor for Coca-Cola Company to enhance operational efficiency and market competitiveness in the future. Generative artificial intelligence or AI agent applications in manufacturing and research and development will be crucial for Coca-Cola Company to enhance operational efficiency and market competitiveness. After introducing generative AI or AI agents into the traditional manufacturing industry, AI can quickly and accurately analyze and process large amounts of data, generating complete process systems at a very fast pace, thereby increasing the production efficiency of manufacturing industry pipelines. It can also model and analyze historical production data to predict potential equipment failures, helping companies reduce maintenance costs and take preventive measures.Avoid deep-level threats.Hola, cmo ests?