UPDATE 1-Credit Suisse cuts Coca-Cola to neutral

(Adds analyst comments, background)

Aug 28 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse downgraded Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) to "neutral" from "outperform," saying the company was under increased urgency to restructure its North American business, and added this would be harder for Coke than for rival soft drink giant PepsiCo Inc (PEP.N).

With dollar poised to strengthen, and with growing competitive pressure from PepsiCo and its North American bottlers, the urgency for dealing with Coke's "broken North American model has now moved to the front burner," analysts Carlos Laboy and Anthony Bucalo wrote in a note to clients.

In July, Coca-Cola reported a lower quarterly profit, hurt by an impairment charge at its largest bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc (CCE.N), which initiated a 120-day review of its North American operations in order to find actions that would improve results.

"With Pepsi indicating that a reshaping to be unveiled in November will not provoke a change to its growth algorithm, and with Coca-Cola Enterprises in crisis, the pressure is rising for Coke to fix this market," the analysts said.

Credit Suisse analysts also said its economists were expecting a bottoming out and recovery of the dollar for 2009 and beyond, adding that this may have a "dampening effect on potential earnings growth and accelerate the need for concentrate price increases to the bottling network."

The weakness of the U.S. dollar against many other currencies increases the value of overseas sales when they are converted to dollars for inclusion in companies' income statements.

Laboy and Bucalo cut their price target on the stock to $57 from $60.

Shares of the company closed at $53.79 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)