Quick Verdict
ZakatInvest classifies Coca-Cola (KO) as doubtful. The company's principal beverage portfolio is mainly non-alcoholic, but it also identifies an alcohol ready-to-drink portfolio. Its April 2026 interest-bearing debt equals 43.46% of total assets, above the limits in each total-assets methodology examined below. Coca-Cola does not separately disclose alcohol-specific revenue, and the market-cap methods have not been calculated, so the evidence does not support either a blanket halal label or a claim that every methodology reaches the same result.
What Coca-Cola's Business Includes
Coca-Cola's familiar sparkling drinks, water, sports drinks, coffee, tea, juice, dairy and plant-based beverages are generally permissible product categories. The latest filing reports $12.472 billion of quarterly revenue as $7.385 billion from concentrate operations and $5.087 billion from finished-product operations. Those lines describe how beverages are supplied; they do not separate revenue into halal and non-compliant products.
The qualitative concern in the earlier analysis remains material. Coca-Cola's own alcohol ready-to-drink portfolio lists Fresca Mixed, Jack Daniel's & Coca-Cola, Simply Spiked and Topo Chico Hard. Its official announcement describes Jack Daniel's & Coca-Cola as a global relationship with Brown-Forman. Other arrangements use third-party production, distribution, marketing or authorized trademarks in particular markets. These distinctions matter when identifying what Coca-Cola earns and controls.
What the Alcohol Disclosure Does—and Does Not—Prove
The existence of alcohol-related brands and commercial relationships is documented. The consolidated filing does not disclose their revenue, royalties, brand-authorization income or related costs as a separate numerator. Revenue is instead split by geography, operating segment, and concentrate versus finished-product operations. ZakatInvest therefore removed the previous unsupported estimate that alcohol represented roughly 2–5% of revenue.
Without a reproducible numerator, it is not responsible to say the activity is below, approaching or above a 5% threshold. The business-activity calculation remains incomplete. Investors applying a strict view may reject any deliberate alcohol relationship; investors applying a screened incidental-revenue approach still need evidence the company does not currently publish. That genuine methodological and evidentiary uncertainty is why the canonical verdict is doubtful.
Current Financial Screening
The calculation uses Coca-Cola's latest available Form 10-Q as of this review and links directly to the official filing at the SEC. Balance-sheet inputs are dated April 3, 2026, and income inputs use the matching three-month period.
Current quantitative Sharia screen
Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-04-03; calculated 2026-07-12.
45,295 / 104,217
13,713 / 104,217
14,249 / 104,217
255 / 12,472
- Financial
- Fails
- Overall
- Fails
Debt is 43.46% of total assets and exceeds the 33.333% limit. Identifiable liquidity is 13.16%, receivables plus cash is 13.67%, and the conservative non-compliant-income upper bound is 2.04%; those ratios pass, but the debt failure determines the financial result.
- Financial
- Fails
- Overall
- Fails
Debt is 43.46% and exceeds the examined 33.33% total-assets limit. Liquidity and receivables-plus-cash pass, but the debt failure determines the result; the alcohol business-revenue calculation also remains incomplete.
- Financial
- Fails
- Overall
- Fails
Debt is 43.46% and exceeds the examined 33% total-assets limit. This is a calculation against the SAC ratios, not an official SAC classification of a U.S.-listed security; the screened business-revenue numerator is unavailable.
- Financial
- Not calculated
- Overall
- Not calculated
A properly licensed and reproducible 24- or 36-month issuer market-cap history is not yet stored, so these methods are not estimated from a current spot price.
Business-activity disclosure
Coca-Cola's broad portfolio is principally associated with non-alcoholic sparkling beverages, water, sports drinks, coffee, tea, juice, dairy and plant-based beverages. The company also presents a distinct alcohol ready-to-drink portfolio that includes Fresca Mixed, Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola, Simply Spiked and Topo Chico Hard, using a mix of relationships, brand authorizations and market arrangements.
Limitation: The filing does not disclose alcohol-specific revenue or a Sharia-screened numerator for brand authorizations, licensing, ingredients, products, markets or end uses. The existence of alcohol activity is documented, but neither a claim that it is below nor above a 5% business threshold can be reproduced from consolidated disclosure.
Purification
Gross interest income plus dividend income is a conservative 2.04% upper bound relative to quarterly net operating revenues. Alcohol-specific and other screened operating revenue is unavailable, and not every dividend receipt is proven prohibited, so 2.04% is not presented as a complete fixed purification prescription.
Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
- Interest-bearing debt is 332 of loans and notes payable, 4,493 of current maturities, 39,065 of long-term debt, plus 1,405 of loans, current maturities and long-term debt classified within liabilities held for sale. Including held-for-sale debt matches its corresponding assets inside consolidated total assets.
- Cash and cash equivalents use the reported 10,574 balance.
- Identifiable interest-bearing securities conservatively include the entire 509 short-term-investments line plus 2,630 of disclosed debt securities. The separately disclosed equity securities are excluded, and cash equivalents are not counted twice.
- Receivables use the reported 3,675 trade-accounts-receivable balance after allowances.
- Net operating revenues of 12,472, gross interest income of 222 and dividend income of 33 use the same three-month period ended April 3, 2026.
- The 255 income numerator treats all disclosed interest and dividend income as non-compliant for a conservative upper bound. It does not automatically classify equity-method operating income or every security gain as prohibited without evidence.
- Revenue is disclosed by concentrate and finished-product operations and by geography or operating segment, not by Sharia-screened alcohol activity, brand authorization, licensing arrangement, ingredient, product, or end use.
This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.
What the Numbers Show
Interest-bearing debt is $45.295 billion, or 43.46% of $104.217 billion of total assets. The numerator includes $1.405 billion of debt inside liabilities held for sale because the matching assets remain inside consolidated total assets. Leaving that debt out would understate the ratio. The result exceeds the 33.333%, 33.33% and 33% total-assets limits examined here.
Cash plus identifiable interest-bearing securities is 13.16% of assets, and trade receivables plus cash is 13.67%; those ratios pass the examined limits. The securities input conservatively includes the entire $509 million short-term-investments line and $2.630 billion of disclosed debt securities, while excluding separately disclosed equity securities and avoiding a second count of cash equivalents.
Market-cap methodologies can reach a different result because they use a historical average market-value denominator. ZakatInvest does not estimate those methods from today's share price. A properly licensed and reproducible 24- or 36-month history must be stored before presenting that calculation.
Health and Consumer-Welfare Review
The prior article's concern about sugar should not be converted into an unsupported company-wide religious ruling, but it should not be erased. Investors may assess added sugar, metabolic health, caffeine, portion sizes, labeling, product safety, reformulation, low- and no-sugar alternatives, and marketing to children or vulnerable consumers. The ethical question is broader than whether an ordinary soft drink is intrinsically permissible.
Water, Packaging, Labor and the Coca-Cola System
A complete qualitative review also considers water withdrawals and community access, watershed impacts, plastics and packaging, collection and reuse, recycling claims, waste, emissions and agricultural sourcing. Because Coca-Cola operates through company-owned operations and a network of bottling partners, evidence about supplier labor, worker safety, human rights, franchise practices, lobbying, market power and geopolitical operations must be evaluated at the relevant entity and location rather than reduced to a slogan.
Dividend and Purification
Coca-Cola's board approved its 64th consecutive annual dividend increase in February 2026, raising the quarterly dividend to $0.53 per share, or $2.12 annualized. The live yield changes with the market price and is intentionally not hard-coded.
Gross interest income was $222 million and dividend income was $33 million. Treating both amounts as non-compliant produces a conservative upper bound of 2.04% of quarterly revenue. It is an upper bound because not every dividend receipt is proven prohibited, and it excludes equity-method operating income rather than classifying it without evidence. Alcohol-specific and other screened operating revenue remains unavailable, so 2.04% is not a complete fixed purification prescription.
Bottom Line
KO remains doubtful in ZakatInvest's canonical classification. Its mainly non-alcoholic portfolio supports the permissible side of the qualitative case. Its documented alcohol relationships and undisclosed alcohol-specific revenue prevent a complete business screen, while its current total-assets financial screens fail because debt is 43.46% of assets. A market-cap method may differ, but it has not been calculated here. This is a transparent screening classification, not a fatwa or investment recommendation; apply your chosen methodology with a qualified Sharia adviser if you need a binding ruling.
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