The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) the beverage company's adjusted profit for fiscal Q3 came in merely in line with the Street view while revenue missed expectations, while the company unveiled plans to expand its cost-cutting plan to target savings of $3 billion a year by 2019 and warned it expects 2014 EPS below its long-term growth target. For the quarter ended Sept. 26, 2014, net income attributable to The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) shareholders rose to $2.11 billion, or $0.48 per share, down from $2.45 billion, or $0.54 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 27, 2013. Excluding one-time items, it earned $0.53 per share in the latest quarter, flat with the year-earlier period and matching the mean estimate of analysts polled by Capital IQ. Net operating revenue totaled $11.98 billion, down slightly from $12.03 billion a year earlier, a missing analysts' consensus estimate of $12.15 billion. Global unit case volume grew 1% in the quarter, with Coca-Cola International volume up 1% while North America volume declined 1%.Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said while the company has begun to see "early signs of progress" from its efforts to reinvigorate long-term sustainable growth, "we need to increase the scope and pace of change as we continue to face a challenging macroeconomic environment. We are therefore taking actions to strengthen our long-term financial performance, including further aligning our organization and our incentive plans to drive revenue and profit growth, increasing our productivity target to $3 billion in annualized savings by 2019, streamlining and simplifying our organization, and proceeding with plans for refranchising the majority of company-owned North American bottling territories by the end of 2017."Its prior savings plan, announced in February 2014, had targeted an incremental $1 billion in savings by 2016. The company warned it expects 2014 earnings to be below its long-term EPS growth target. That target, which it maintained Tuesday, is for comparable currency-neutral EPS growth in the high-single digits. In addition, it said it doesn't expect comparable currency neutral EPS growth in 2015 to be significantly different from 2014. Coca-Cola changed its long-term target for net revenue to growth in the mid-single digits.Information technology company International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) has been downgraded by analysts at Evercore Partners to a hold rating from a buy. Price target information was not available. Shares of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) are moving toward the bottom a 52-week trading range of $166.69 - $199.21.Materialise NV (ADR) (NASDAQ:MTLS), a provider of 3D printing systems and additive manufacturing software, said Tuesday it acquired UK-based OrthoView Holdings Ltd. for GBP8.47 million and a potential earn out payment of up to GBP0.36 million. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to EPS within 12 months. OrthoView Holdings is a leading provider of 2D digital pre-operative planning and templating solutions for orthopedic surgeons. Materialise NV (ADR) (NASDAQ:MTLS) shares are trading within a 52-week range of $9.05 - $15.15.
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