Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft-drink maker, reported an unexpected increase in second-quarter profit on sales of Dasani water and a gain from the initial public offering of a Turkish bottler.

Net income rose 6.6% to $1.84 billion, or 78 cents a share, from $1.72 billion, or 72 cents, a year earlier, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said today in a statement. The company is “in a good position” to meet its growth targets for the year, CEO E. Neville Isdell said.

Revenue increased 2.6% to $6.48 billion on gains in Europe and Latin America as Coca-Cola promoted the World Cup tournament with soccer ball-shaped soda bottles and images of players on cans.Mr.Isdell is trying to regain ground lost to PepsiCo Inc. in the America by adding flavored Dasani water and expanding lower-calorie drinks such as Powerade.

“What Coke needs is to hook together two or three more quarters like this,” said Marc Inboden, a money manager with Beese Fulmer & Pincoe Inc. in Canton, Ohio, which holds 70,000 shares of Coca-Cola among $400 million in assets. “They’re making a real concerted effort to pick up the sales and get attention for these healthier drinks.”

Profit was boosted by a 4-cent gain on the initial public offering by Turkish bottler Coca-Cola Icacek AS, which is partly owned by Anadolu Efes Biracilik & Malt Sanayii AS, of which Coca-Cola is an investor. Excluding the Turkish bottler gain, earnings per share were 74 cents, beating analysts’ estimates.

Early shipments of syrup added 2 cents a share to profit. The benefit will be reversed in the second half of the year, the company said.

Morgan Stanley analyst Bill Pecoriello estimated Coca-Cola’s profit would be 72 cents a share, matching the average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Thomson doesn’t disclose the basis for the projection to Bloomberg. Mr. Pecoriello is topranked by Institutional Investor.

Shares of Coca-Cola rose 85 cents, or 2%, to $43.55 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest gain in a year.They are up 1.4% in the past year, compared with a 16% gain for PepsiCo.

Coca-Cola said profit in North America rose 7% to $493 million during the quarter, and Latin America profit jumped 16% to $346 million, led by higher sales of more profitable single-serve packages and World Cup promotions.

Mr. Isdell, 63, last year permanently increased Coca-Cola’s marketing budget by $400 million to $2.5 billion. He introduced new logos for Sprite soda, and began a marketing campaign aimed at teens and young adults with the tagline “sublymonal,” which alludes to the drink’s lemon-lime flavor.

“Our marketing investments are starting to pay off,” Mr. Isdell said on a conference call with analysts and investors. “We are in a good position to deliver against our full-year objectives.”

Coca-Cola’s long-term targets are to increase volume by 3% to 4% annually, raise earnings per share by”high single digits” and boost operating income by 6% to 8%.

PepsiCo said July 13 that secondquarter sales rose 12% as it promoted healthier drinks such as Lipton citrus green tea and Gatorade, and lower-fat snacks such as Baked Cheetos. PepsiCo generates less than 20% of its revenue from sugary sodas, compared with 80% for Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola’s volume in America was driven by coupons that offered free multi-packs of Dasani water when customers bought three or four 12-packs of soda, according to Mr.Pecoriello, who is based in Purchase, New York.