Coca-Cola

The canonical wide-moat brand — slow growth, global distribution, pricing power in a bottle.

WideForeverFullClassicBerkshire overlap

Longhold

Earnings

Moat

Hold

Ten-year thesis

Coke is the teaching name. Concentrate economics, bottler network, and a brand that has survived every health wave for a century. A ten-year hold will not make you rich fast; it will likely deliver mid-single-digit volume/price and a rising dividend. Own it as ballast and as a calibration tool: if a tech name cannot beat this on moat-plus-earnings quality, it does not belong in the book.

The moat

Brand, secret-formula mystique, and an unmatched fountain/cooler distribution system. Efficient scale in many markets. Switching costs are habit, not lock-in.

Switching costs55

Pain, risk, or retraining required to leave.

Network effects50

The product gets better as more people use it.

Intangibles & IP88

Patents, data, licenses, process knowledge, regulation.

Scale advantage90

Fixed costs spread over a volume rivals cannot match.

Cost advantage72

Structural ability to be the low-cost producer.

Brand99

Pricing power from trust, habit, or identity.

Tech overlay

The anti-tech comparison that still matters. Brand and distribution moats are real. They just grow slower than software. A tech-fluent book should still want a few of these so the score does not become a growth-stock cheer.

What can break it

Sugar and health regulation
Currency translation
Slow real growth that makes valuation the whole return

Earnings path

USD billions, illustrative 2016–2025 series

Owner metrics

P/E

24.0×

P/FCF

23.0×

ROIC

18%

ROE

40%

FCF conversion

95%

Debt / equity

1.60

Gross margin

61%

Op. margin

28%

10y rev CAGR

10y EPS CAGR

Owner earnings

$11.5B

Mkt cap

$290B

Owner earnings yield 4.0%. Yield is judged against quality, not against a single hurdle — a fortress can be fairly priced at a lower yield than a fragile name.

BrandBeveragesBerkshire