Citi Maintains Buy on Coca-Cola

Citi is out with its report today on Coca-Cola KO, maintaining Buy. In a note to clients, Citi writes, "KO is trading at roughly 16x our 2012 EPS estimate, which represents a 24% premium to the market multiple, and is exactly in line with the stock's historical average valuation. Given the clear momentum in KO's business, especially from a top line and market share perspective, we think KO should trade at a premium to its historical valuation. Specifically, our target price of $72 reflects our belief that KO should trade at nearly a 35% premium to the market. Given that our target price represents 11% total return from current levels, we maintain our Buy rating." At the time of posting, shares of KO were trading pre-market at $67.70, up 0.86% from Monday's close.