Coca-Cola – An Overvalued Dividend Aristocrat

Coca-Cola (KO) is a wonderful company and made many investor rich. KO has been increasing it's dividend since 1963. Everybody knows it's powerful brands and I think that it will be in the business in the next decades.

Because of the low interest rates more and more investors are looking for safe investments with a small, but stable yield. My opinion, that this reflects in the valuation of Coca-Cola. The dividend yield of KO is 3.27%, which is much higher than the yield of a bank account. But will it be a good investment?

KO has a 31.8 P/E ratio, which is much higher than the KO's five year average. (22.7)

The company's revenue decreased in the last five years from $48,017 million to $41,863 million. The diluted EPS decreased at the same time frame from $1.97 to $1.49. If this decreasing is not changing it will be more and more difficult to pay out such a high dividend. 

KO pays out $1.40 in the last financial year. The payout ratio of the company is 83.6%, so I think there is only a small space to increase it's dividend.

I think that the valuation is not reflecting the growth characteristics of Coca-Cola, so I won't buy it at today's prices.

Full disclosure: Long PEP.