KO Keeps Raising Dividend Despite Flat Sales

Coca-Cola's sales have not significantly increased over the past decade, but its dividend has continued to rise. In 2015, the company and its bottling partners sold 29.2 billion unit cases of drinks, while in 2025 they sold 33.8 billion, a growth of about 16% or 1.5% per year.

The dividend has not followed this slow pace, increasing from $1.32 per share in 2015 to $2.12 today, a rise of 61%. The company has raised its dividend every year since 1963, marking 64 consecutive annual increases.

This growth is largely due to Coca-Cola's shift towards higher-margin business operations. In the past decade, the company refranchised most of its bottling businesses, keeping concentrate sales and brand economics for itself. Revenue dropped from $44.3 billion in 2015 to $31.9 billion in 2018 but rebounded to $47.9 billion by 2025. Operating income also increased, reaching $13.8 billion in 2025 compared to $8.7 billion a decade earlier.

The company's operating margin expanded to about 29% from about 20%, and price and mix contributed significantly to the growth of organic revenue last year. In fact, most of the underlying growth came from price and mix rather than an increase in unit cases.