Earnings: Coca Cola, Toyota and BP

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Coca-Cola

ATLANTA — Coca-Cola Co.'s fourth-quarter net income dropped 71 percent, weighed down by restructuring charges and a difficult comparison with last year's fourth quarter, when the beverage maker had a hefty benefit from buying its bottlers.

But the Atlanta company said Tuesday its adjusted results topped Wall Street's expectations as it sold more drinks in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in emerging markets.

"Even as we believe that global market volatility will continue in the near term, the breadth of our global footprint and the strength of our brands create a resilient business that was built for times like these," said CEO Muhtar Kent in a statement.

Coke also said it will start a cost-cutting program in 2012 to save $550 million to $650 million annually by 2015 in part to help offset continued high commodity costs.

Coca-Cola, whose brands include Sprite and Minute Maid, earned $1.65 billion, or 72 cents per share, for the period ended Dec. 31. That's down sharply from $5.77 billion, or $2.46 per share, a year earlier. But a year ago, the company had a one-time net gain of $1.74 per share, mainly related to buying a bottler's North American operations.

Revenue increased 5 percent to $11.04 billion. It was helped by higher prices, strength overseas and solid results from the Coca-Cola brand, juices and teas.

Toyota

TOKYO — Toyota's quarterly profit slid 13.5 percent on production setbacks caused by last year's tsunami disaster and the flooding in Thailand, but Japan's top automaker raised its annual earnings forecast, saying a recovery is on track.

Toyota Motor Corp. reported Tuesday an 80.9 billion yen ($1.05 billion) profit for the October-December third quarter, down from 93.6 billion yen a year earlier.

Showing confidence in its ability to bounce back, the manufacturer of the Prius gas-electric hybrid, Lexus luxury models and the Camry sedan raised its annual profit forecast to 200 billion yen ($2.6 billion) from 180 billion yen ($2.3 billion).

Still, the higher forecast is barely half of what Toyota raked in the previous fiscal year at 408 billion yen.

BP

LONDON — BP PLC has raised its quarterly dividend by 14 percent after posting double-digit gains in profit and revenue in the last three months of 2011 despite further big payments to compensate for the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP also said Tuesday that it expects to complete payments to the Gulf of Mexico Trust Fund this year to cover its liability for damage from the massive blowout of the Macondo well in April 2010.

For the three months ending Dec. 31, BP reported a profit of $7.69 billion, up 38 percent from the $5.57 billion posted a year earlier. Revenue was up 15 percent at $96.3 billion.

As of Dec. 31, the cumulative charges paid from the Gulf Trust fund amounted to $14.5 billion.

BP faces its day in court in New Orleans on Feb. 27 with the opening of a limitation and liability trial over the spill.

BP PLC, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cement contractor Halliburton Co. have been fighting one another over who was responsible for causing the blowout, which was finally halted in July, 2010. U.S. investigators have said that BP bears ultimate responsibility for the spill but has faulted all three companies to some degree.

— The Associated Press
Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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