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Everybody knows Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), one of the world's top beverage makers. The company is an absolute giant, generating $31.9 billion in revenue and $8.7 billion in operating income in 2018.

Now, Coca-Cola stock isn't for everyone. This isn't a high-growth company that investors can count on for market-beating stock price appreciation -- the shares have risen just 15% in the last five years, underperforming the 61% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Index, nor is it a stock that'll likely be attractive to deep value investors. After all, Coca-Cola trades for almost 21 times analysts' 2020 earnings-per-share estimates.

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However, if you're a more conservative investor -- say, one who values long-term capital preservation and a solid dividend -- then Coca-Cola shares are worth a look.

A nearly recession-proof business

Bull markets don't last forever -- there will inevitably be another economic recession down the line. While no company is completely immune to the effects of a recession, it's not hard to make a credible case for why Coca-Cola would easily survive one.

To do that, let's take a look at how Coca-Cola's business and stock price fared during the Great Recession, which started in Dec. 2007 and ended in June 2009.

As far as the business itself goes, for the entirety of 2007, Coca-Cola generated $28.6 billion in net revenue and $7.2 billion in operating income. Over the course of 2008 -- deep in the throes of the financial crisis -- Coca-Cola actually saw its revenue rise 11% year over year with operating income outpacing revenue, up 16%.

In 2009, the top line saw a 3% drop, but the reasons for that slight decline weren't necessarily related to the weak economy. Digging deeper into its annual filing for 2009, the company said that it saw a 3% increase in revenue from concentrate sales volume. More than offsetting that good news was a 1% drop from selling off "certain bottling operations" and then another 5% decline thanks to "currency fluctuations versus the U.S. dollar."

Put simply, Coca-Cola's business hummed along just fine during the last economic downturn.

Now, the fact that Coca-Cola's business performed well through the recession doesn't mean the stock price wasn't impacted -- the shares actually shed about 37% from the peak in 2007 to the trough in early 2009 -- but the company's intact fundamentals should have given long-term investors confidence that the shares would eventually rebound.

A healthy dividend

Another potentially attractive feature of Coca-Cola stock is its large and growing dividend. As of this writing, the shares offer a 3.4% dividend yield. This isn't the biggest yield on the market, but it's a solid one that's backed by a nearly bulletproof business. The company points out on its investor relations website that it has "increased dividends in each of the last 55 years," which, of course, means this Dividend King has given shareholders payout increases even during the toughest of economic times.