Great Call on Coca-Cola! What's Next?

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Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) could be one of the perfect companies out there. Bold statement, right? And believe me, I don't say it lightly. But think about it: During recessionary times like we're engulfed in now, people continue to drink Coke products. And if the government's interventions do eventually lead to inflation, Coke may find itself more able than most to raise prices and ... people will continue to drink Coke products. If there were ever a company providing the measuring stick for competitive moat, Coke may be it.

No investment lives in a vacuum, though, and we can't consider Coca-Cola's stock without considering its valuation. And it's likely the stock's above-market valuation that has kept the stock at four-star status in Motley Fool CAPS. But while Coke's stock may not have the top rating in CAPS, it still has plenty of fans -- 4,489 of them to be exact. And one of those fans -- BeautifulPlumage -- has managed to top the score-leader chart for Coke by making three outperform calls on the stock between late 2006 and early last year.

BeautifulPlumage is one of CAPS' All-Stars -- players with a rating of 80 or greater -- and has managed an impressive stock-picking accuracy of 81% while racking up more than 5,400 points. Coca-Cola isn't this player's only great call. Here's a look at a few of the other prescient picks:

Company	Date Picked	Call	Points	CAPS Rating (out of 5)
SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK)	12/3/08	Outperform	120	***
Ambac Financial (NYSE: ABK)	11/16/07	Underperform	71	*
Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF)	12/3/08	Outperform	67	**

Data from CAPS.

So what is this investor looking at these days? Here are a few of the most recent calls on CAPS:

Company	Date Picked	Call	CAPS Rating (out of 5)
Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF)	4/27/09	Underperform	*
MasterCard (NYSE: MA)	4/27/09	Underperform	**
Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI)	4/20/09	Underperform	***

Data from CAPS.

All of these picks may not pan out, but they could be a good place to start some further research. I decided to take a closer look at Whole Foods.

Whole Foods at half-price?
If we look back to one of the stock's peaks back in October 2007, we find that today's price has been discounted by more than half. But no matter how you cut it, this is definitely a stock that's been put on the clearance rack.

Why might that be? For one thing, it might seem that the grocer's 2007 acquisition of Wild Oats was rather ill-timed. The acquisition came at a time when Whole Foods' stock was trading at more than double what it is today -- meaning that it likely also paid a lot more for Wild Oats than it would have today.

And rather than use its highly valued stock as a currency for the transaction, the company paid cash -- more specifically, cash that it didn't have. So the acquisition was made at a premium and it loaded Whole Foods up with debt. Ouch all around.

Perhaps an even bigger knock on the company in the current environment, though, is the market segment that it targets. While you can go pretty much anywhere to pick up a box of Special K, Whole Foods is the place to be if you want really-high-quality produce and more natural products than you can shake a stick at. Of course, those fancy groceries come at a price, a price that investors fear consumers aren't willing to pay in a recession.

Not all CAPS members agree on the bearish vibes, though. CAPS All-Star SBNash55, for instance, is one of the 3,678 Whole Foods fans on CAPS, recently pitching:

Healthy living may not be a top priority during the current crisis, but aging baby boomers want to live longer and have the resources to give it a shot. This segment leader should lead.

As for me, I logged a thumbs-up for Whole Foods on CAPS back in October 2008 when it was changing hands at a bit over $11 per share. After a six-month, 56% run, I closed my call and today largely agree with the stock's three-star rating -- that is, it's not a stock that I find overly attractive, nor is it something I'd consider shorting.

But here's the important question: what's your take on Whole Foods? Will consumers continue to gobble its costly groceries during the downturn? Get in the action by clicking over to CAPS. It's is absolutely free and already has more than 130,000 stock pickers chipping in to find the best stocks out there.

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