The weighted average cost of capital for The Coca-Cola Company at 2026-06-30, calculated using the Baratelli Institute methodology and sourced to the most recent public filings. The number below is a practitioner reference — free to use, free to cite, refreshed quarterly.
| Component | Value | Source / Assumption |
|---|---|---|
| Risk-free rate (Rf) | 4.25% | 10-year US Treasury yield at snapshot date |
| Equity risk premium (ERP) | 5.55% | Damodaran implied ERP, June 2026 update |
| Beta (β) | 0.60 | 5-year weekly regression vs S&P 500, Blume-adjusted |
| Cost of equity (Ke) | 7.6% | CAPM: Rf + β × ERP = 4.25% + 0.60 × 5.55% |
| Pre-tax cost of debt (Kd) | 4.75% | Current-yield estimate on senior unsecured debt at issuer's rating |
| Marginal tax rate (t) | 20.0% | Blended federal + state; company-specific effective rate |
| After-tax cost of debt | 3.8% | Kd × (1 − t) = 4.75% × 80.0% |
| Equity weight (E/V) | 85.0% | Market value of equity ÷ total capitalization |
| Debt weight (D/V) | 15.0% | Market value of debt ÷ total capitalization |
| WACC | 7.0% | (E/V × Ke) + (D/V × Kd after-tax) |
Full WACC calculator plus 25 other Wall Street templates are in the Baratelli Financial Modeling Toolkit — $99.
Use this WACC as the discount rate in an enterprise-value DCF, the hurdle rate for value-based management analysis of KO, or the cost-of-capital anchor when comparing KO to peers in the Soft Drinks & Non-alcoholic Beverages industry. For equity-only valuation frameworks (dividend discount models, residual income), use the cost of equity Ke of 7.6% instead of the blended WACC.
The methodology page walks each input in more depth and explains where reasonable practitioners disagree. If your own model uses different inputs, the companion Excel workbook exposes every formula so you can substitute directly.
Berkshire Read — KO is a Berkshire permanent holding since 1988
Coca-Cola is one of Berkshire's longest continuous positions. The practitioner reference on Berkshire's permanent holdings framework and the KO story specifically.
Consumer Staples sector peers in this reference: COST (Costco Wholesale Corporation), WMT (Walmart Inc.), PEP (PepsiCo, Inc.), KHC (The Kraft Heinz Company).
All companies in the reference: The full WACC Reference Library (73 companies).
The methodology: How the numbers are calculated.
The applied companion: The Baratelli CFO & Controller's Guide covers WACC methodology within a full controllership framework.