Can Coke Surpass Its Record High of $88 a Share?

Coca-Cola (KO) Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent will tell you he doesn't pay any attention to the company's share price. "We do the right thing, and our share price manages itself," he says. His predecessor, E. Neville Isdell, often said the same thing. Today, Isdell, who stepped aside as CEO in 2008, admits that he obsessively checks the stock on his BlackBerry.

The stock's $87.94 high-water mark on July 14, 1998, still haunts company headquarters in Atlanta. The five-year decline that brought shares to $37 in March 2003 reflected the turmoil within, as the company struggled with bloated costs, management upheaval, and a loss of focus on its core product, soda pop. Coca-Cola has been addressing those problems, and after a setback during the recent global recession, its shares on May 19 hit $68.46, the highest level in more than a decade. Yet even as it improves operations, the company is unlikely to generate the exuberant support from investors that propelled the stock in the 1990s, and some money managers who own the shares say it will be two years or more before they surpass the high established 13 years ago.