Coca-Cola Beats Street Estimates, Diet Coke Boosts Demand

Coca-Cola Co beat Wall Street estimates with quarterly results on Tuesday, citing more demand for Coke Zero Sugar and new flavours under its Diet Coke brand as overall revenue topped expectations by around $300 million.

Shares of the Dow component were up nearly 1 per cent at $44.44 in pre market trade.

The company said the launch of its popular low-calorie Diet Coke aimed at millennials - ginger-lime, feisty cherry, blood orange and twisted mango - helped the brand return to volume growth in the quarter.

Unit case volume rose 4 per cent for sparkling soft drinks and 5 per cent for its teas and coffees, Coca-Cola said in a statement.

The Fanta and Sprite maker's net profit rose to $1.37 billion, or 32 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 30 from $1.18 billion, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Coke earned 47 cents per share, compared to analysts' estimate of 46 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 16 per cent to $7.63 billion, due to the divestment of its bottling operations, but beat analysts' estimate of $7.34 billion.

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