The Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (ASX: CCL) share price closed 5% higher yesterday at $11.93 despite the bottler and beverage distributor not releasing any specific news to the market.
This sizeable move is unusual for a blue-chip business with the shares probably climbing on the back of news reports that analysts at Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) upgraded their rating on the stock to 'neutral', while lifting their price target to $11.20.
Coca-Cola is among a number of ASX blue chips such as Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) and Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) printing new 52-week highs on the back of a macro environment coercing investors into accepting lower yields from businesses considered 'defensive'.
Over FY 2019 Coca-Cola paid 51 cents per share in dividends to place it on a trailing yield of 4.3%. This is way ahead of a term deposit and attractive to some retail and institutional investors alike.
In a bid to halt its recent earnings slide Coca-Cola has spent the last two years pulling costs out of the business and is targeting a return to profit growth over calendar 2020.
Over the medium term it's also retaining a target to deliver mid-single digit earnings per share growth from 2020 onwards.
