Why Ronaldo’s Promoting Drinking Water Didn’t Move COCA-COLA Share Price

• ByStartupStory     |    June 24, 2021

The soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s gesture at the Euro football Championship press conference on Monday resulted in the slew of new articles that he’s responsible for $4 billion off of Coca-Cola’s market value. Ronaldo was preparing for a pre-match conference. Two minutes before it began, the Juventus Megastar, irritably set aside two bottles of Coke and picked up a bottle of water and said: “`Agua!”- the Portuguese word for water.

It’s true that Ronaldo declined to drink the strategically placed COCA-COLA in front of the press. It’s also true that by the time the press conference ended its market value was down by $4 billion. However, there are other factors affecting the beverage giant’s stock price which didn’t come into the highlight:

Some important facts need to be considered:

–     On June 11, COCA-COLA had 4.3 billion shares and closed with a share price of $56.16 for a market value of $242 billion.

–     On Monday, COCA-COLA opened lower, at 9:30 a.m. EST.

–     At 9:40 a.m. EST, its stock price was $55.26 (down 1.6%) and the market value had dipped to $238 billion, $4 billion lower than the prior day.

–     At 9:43 a.m. EST, Cristiano moves the COCA-COLA bottle.

The COCA-COLA market was already down by $4 billion, before his gesture towards the beverage. Moreover, the whole US stock market was trading low at that time. For instance, Ford Motor Company was down more than $2 billion in market value.

Another fact: On June 14, Coca-Cola shares became ex-dividend. When you own company shares, you receive dividends on certain days. In Coca-Cola’s case, this date was announced more than a year in advance. Once Coca-Cola became an ex-dividend, that dividend had already been distributed. On the day that stocks cease to carry dividend rights, share prices adjust mechanically to a lower number. In this case, the ex-dividend date happened to coincide with Ronaldo’s conference call.

A final fact: At the end of the Wall Street Trading Day, Coca-Cola’s share price went up to $0.30, adding $1.3 billion in valuation to the company.

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