Coca-Cola is on the right track after edging Wall Street's quarterly expectations, according to Jim Cramer.
"They're feeling the heat," Cramer said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Tuesday. "I kind of liked what I saw. I like the fact that they're no longer saying 'were the best.'"
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Cramer made his remarks after the Atlanta-based beverage giant earlier posted fourth-quarter earnings of 44 cents per share on $10.87 billion in revenue. The Street expected Coca-Cola to report earnings of 42 cents a share on revenue of $10.76 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company's sales in North America increased by 2 percent, marking the first rise in four quarters.
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Other companies, like McDonald's paid a hefty price for not recognizing their shortcomings, Cramer added. "I think one of the problems under the [Don] Thompson regime at McDonald's is that there was [this sense] of 'Hey, we're still pretty good; don't worry about it,'" he said. "That's no longer the way it works."
The fast food company posted quarterly earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $6.57 billion last month. Analysts expected McDonald's to report earnings of $1.22 per share on revenue of $6.68 billion, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
—Reuters contributed to this report.
Disclosure: When this story was published, Cramer's trust owned McDonald's stock.