Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTDaniel Sparks, The Motley FoolSat, August 29, 2026 at 10:34 AM GMT+2 5 min readCoca-Cola (NYSE:KO) has done everything an income investor could ask of it this year. In February, the company raised its quarterly dividend about 4% to $0.53 per share ($2.12 a year), marking its 64th consecutive annual increase. Its business has delivered, too, with results strong enough that management raised its full-year outlook in late July.The stock has responded. Shares have climbed about 28% in 2026, reaching about $90 as of this writing -- within a few dollars of their 52-week high.Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »And that is exactly the problem for anyone buying today for the income. A dividend yield is a ratio, and this year the price ran far ahead of the payout.At the start of January, Coca-Cola stock yielded about 2.9%. Today, even with the higher payout, it yields about 2.4%.Image source: Getty Images.The raise didn't keep up with the runThe math is simple enough. Coca-Cola entered the year trading near $70 with an annual dividend rate of $2.04, which worked out to a yield of about 2.9%. Since then, the dividend has grown 4%, and the stock price has grown about 28%.Divide the new payout by the new price, and the yield lands at about 2.4%.Within the past year, the compression looks even sharper. The stock's 52-week low is $65.35, and a buyer at that price collects more than 3.2% on today's payout.A buyer at $90, by contrast, collects about a quarter less income on every dollar invested.For a stock investors mostly own for its steadily growing income stream, that is a meaningful change in what a new dollar buys. The payout keeps rising on schedule. The price of a dollar of that payout has simply risen much faster.The business earned the rallyTo be fair, the stock hasn't climbed on nothing. In the second quarter of 2026, Coca-Cola's net revenue rose 7% year over year to $13.4 billion, and organic revenue grew 6% on a 4% increase in concentrate sales and 2% growth from pricing and mix (a higher share of sales coming from better-priced products).Furthermore, global unit case volume grew 5%. Comparable operating margin reached 35.6%, an expansion from 34.7% a year earlier. Management also lifted its outlook, and now expects organic revenue growth of about 5% for the full year, up from its earlier forecast of 4% to 5%. The company expects to produce about $12.4 billion of free cash flow this year, too.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info