Filed under: Major movement, International markets, Earnings reports, Good news, Products and services, Competitive strategy, Coca-Cola (KO), Recession

It’s another tough day on Wall Street, but for Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) it’s looking like a very good day, as shares are moving strongly higher after the company reported better than expected third quarter earnings this morning.

For its most current quarter, the soft drink giant was expected to show earnings per share of 77 cents, but the actual number was a more impressive 81 cents per share (83 cents excluding one time items). The company noted that strong growth in emerging markets really helped boost the quarter.

The quarterly numbers represent a 14% increase from the company’s third quarter last year when it reported 71 cents per share. Revenues were up 9.1% during the quarter to $8.39 billion.

While demand within the U.S. has been wavering for the company, strong international performance helped Coke come through with a strong quarter. While the company saw a 2% drop in U.S. sales in the quarter, it put up pretty impressive revenue growth figures in other markets — 17% in Eurasia and Africa, 10% in Europe and 24% in Latin America.

Overall, global volume was up 5% in the quarter.

Today’s news has helped the stock avoid the market sell-off that is hitting most stocks out there, and has pushed shares up 4.5% to $45.69. Earlier in the session we saw the stock move up as high as $47.33.

While today’s move is a great relief for investors, it is important to note that the stock has been getting beaten up pretty bad in the market over the past year. Today’s move is nice since bad earnings could have put the stock in a free fall, but the company still has a long way to go before investors can breathe easy again.

Let’s close by taking a look at a one year chart of the stock:

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fatalfury writes “Researchers from the University of Vienna asked 20 males and 20 females to rank vehicles based on their appearance. The list of traits included arrogant, afraid, agreeable, disgusted, extroverted, sad, and others. Cars with ‘meaner’ traits (such as BMW) ranked higher, whereas cars with ‘nicer’ traits (such as Toyota’s Prius) ranked lower. With billions spent on developing new products in the vehicle industry, this could spur a trend in meaner-looking automobiles and perhaps explain why sales of the Prius and other green automobiles are slow to take off with average consumers.”

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Vrst1013 notes a Business Week account of a government report examining fraud in the H-1B program. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services just released a report to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee examining issues with fraud and technical violations within this program. Based on a sample size of 246 H-1B petitions, 13.4 percent showed fraud and 7.3 percent showed technical violations, for an overall violation rate of 20.7 percent. There was slso evidence of payment below the prevailing wage, offers of non-existent jobs, and fraudulent documentation. “‘The report makes it clear that the H-1B program is rife with abuse and misuse,’ states Ron Hira, [a professor] at the Rochester Institute of Technology… However, both Presidential candidates, Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain, have stated they support expanding the program.”

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FiReaNGeL writes “Researchers conducted a genome-wide association study of 1,125 Caucasian men who had been assessed for male pattern baldness. They found two previously unknown genetic variants on chromosome 20 that substantially increased the risk of male pattern baldness. They then confirmed these findings in an additional 1,650 Caucasian men. ‘If you’ve both the risk variants we discovered on chromosome 20 and the unrelated known variant on the X chromosome, your risk of becoming bald increases sevenfold. What’s startling is that one in seven men have both of those risk variants.’” So maybe gene therapy will finally have a real purpose.

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