CocaCola (NYSE:KO) & Alkaline Water (NASDAQ:WTER) Critical Review

Alkaline Water (NASDAQ:WTER) and CocaCola (NYSE:KO) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

3.8% of Alkaline Water shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of CocaCola shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Alkaline Water shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of CocaCola shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Alkaline Water has a beta of 8.83, suggesting that its stock price is 783% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CocaCola has a beta of 0.34, suggesting that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Alkaline Water and CocaCola, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alkaline Water	0	0	0	0	0.00
CocaCola	0	3	14	1	2.89

CocaCola has a consensus target price of $95.76, suggesting a potential upside of 8.76%. Given CocaCola’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe CocaCola is more favorable than Alkaline Water.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Alkaline Water and CocaCola”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alkaline Water	$62.39 million	0.01	-$12.64 million	($0.40)	-0.03
CocaCola	$50.13 billion	7.56	$13.11 billion	$3.33	26.44

CocaCola has higher revenue and earnings than Alkaline Water. Alkaline Water is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CocaCola, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Alkaline Water and CocaCola’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alkaline Water	N/A	N/A	N/A
CocaCola	28.56%	39.38%	13.18%

Summary

CocaCola beats Alkaline Water on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alkaline Water

The Alkaline Water Company Inc. produces, distributes, and markets bottled alkaline water in the United States. The company also offers bottled alkaline water in various volumes under the Alkaline88 brand. In addition, it engages in selling of sports drinks under the Alkaline88 Sports Drinks brand. The company sells its products through brokers and distributors to retailers, such as convenience stores, natural food products stores, large ethnic markets, and national retailers, as well as e-commerce websites. The Alkaline Water Company Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

About CocaCola

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks, sparkling flavors; water, sports, coffee, and tea; juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverages; and other beverages. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores. The company sells its products under the Coca-Cola, Diet Coke/Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, caffeine free Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Fanta Orange, Fanta Zero Orange, Fanta Zero Sugar, Fanta Apple, Sprite, Sprite Zero Sugar, Simply Orange, Simply Apple, Simply Grapefruit, Fresca, Schweppes, Thums Up, Aquarius, Ayataka, BODYARMOR, Ciel, Costa, Dasani, dogadan, FUZE TEA, Georgia, glacéau smartwater, glacéau vitaminwater, Gold Peak, Ice Dew, I LOHAS, Powerade, Topo Chico, AdeS, Del Valle, fairlife, innocent, Minute Maid, and Minute Maid Pulpy brands. It operates through a network of independent bottling partners, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, as well as through bottling and distribution operators. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.