Coca-Cola Stock Shines in Market Downturns

Coca-Cola's stock has shown remarkable resilience during market downturns over the past four decades. In seven out of eight years when the S&P 500 lost money, the beverage giant posted a higher total return than the index.

These years include 1981 and 1990, as well as the three-year slump from 2000 to 2002, and then 2008, 2018, and 2022. In five of these years, Coca-Cola's shareholders made money even when the market dropped.

Averaged over all eight years, Coca-Cola's total return was around 1% a year, while the S&P 500 averaged a loss of about 14%. This means that across the market's bad years, Coca-Cola's shareholders have ended up about even on average.

However, the stock isn't cheap going into whatever the next bad year is. As of this writing, shares trade near $86 -- up about 23% this year and within about 6% of the all-time closing high they hit in late August.