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Sometimes—but not reliably. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) outperformed SPY, an ETF that tracks the S&P 500, in the down calendar years 2008 and 2022. That is evidence of resilience in those particular periods, not a rule that KO will fall less whenever the market drops. In Coca-Cola’s latest five-year comparison, KO also lagged the S&P 500 over 2021–2025.
What happened in the down years cited?
A third-party annual total-return series, with dividends reinvested, shows KO outperforming SPY in two calendar years when SPY had a negative return. SPY is an exchange-traded fund used here as a proxy for the S&P 500, not the index itself.
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| Calendar year | KO total return | SPY total return |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | −24.10% | −36.79% |
| 2022 | +10.61% | −18.18% |
These figures show that KO did better than the proxy over those full calendar years. They do not show how either investment performed during every market decline within those years, or establish how KO behaves in all bear markets. Total Real Returns’ KO and SPY annual total-return chart reports returns with dividends reinvested.
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Coca-Cola’s 2025 Form 10-K reports that a hypothetical $100 investment on December 31, 2020 grew to $148 in KO by December 31, 2025, compared with $196 in the S&P 500 Index. The graph measures total shareholder return and assumes dividends were reinvested on their issuance dates. On this five-year measure, KO underperformed the index.
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The graph gives year-end values, not the path of each investment between those dates. It therefore cannot by itself tell you which investment lost more during a particular peak-to-trough decline or how quickly it recovered. Coca-Cola’s 2025 Form 10-K includes the performance graph and identifies KO as the company’s NYSE ticker.
Why the measurement matters
“Holding up” can mean different things. A stock might lose less over a particular fall, finish a calendar year ahead of a benchmark, or deliver a better return over a longer period. Those are not interchangeable comparisons. Dividends matter too: a price-only comparison excludes cash distributions, while total return includes them; reinvesting dividends assumes they are used to buy more shares.
- Calendar-year return compares one year’s opening and closing values. It can hide sharp losses and rebounds within the year.
- Peak-to-trough drawdown measures the fall from a particular high to a subsequent low. Comparing drawdowns requires matching the dates and using the same return definition for KO and the benchmark.
- Recovery time shows how long it takes to regain the prior high. It is different from the size of the initial decline.
- Total return accounts for dividends; the cited annual series and Coca-Cola’s five-year graph both reinvest them, though the annual comparison uses SPY as the benchmark proxy.
The cited annual examples and five-year graph do not provide a complete matched-date study of every S&P 500 drawdown, including peak-to-trough losses and recovery times. They support a narrower conclusion: KO has outperformed in some down calendar years, while its relative performance changes with the measurement window.
Where to check Coca-Cola’s historical prices and dividends
Coca-Cola’s stock-information page links to historical price data and dividend records. Its year-end market-values table separately lists closing prices and annual dividends per share. For 2025, it lists a $69.91 year-end closing price and $2.04 in annual dividends per share; those are separate figures, not a total-return calculation.
To assess a specific downturn, compare KO and the S&P 500 over the same peak, trough, and recovery dates, using consistent total-return data. A calendar-year result or two endpoints cannot substitute for that drawdown analysis.
Sources: Coca-Cola Stock Info and Coca-Cola Year-End Market Values.
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