Skift Take
As sales growth slows down, Starbucks is still trying to rework its sleepiest selling period: the afternoon.
— Erika Adams
After another quarter of tepid sales growth, Starbucks Corp. Chief Financial Officer Scott Maw assured investors that the company is investing “strategically and with a ‘long game’ mentality.” Wall Street may not be so patient.
Starbucks grew just as much as analysts expected in the latest quarter, but investors sold off shares late Thursday. Still associated with its meteoric rise to ubiquity, the company is having trouble managing expectations now that it’s among the biggest restaurant chains in the world.
“The results aren’t what people have in mind necessarily with Starbucks being a ‘growth stock,”’ Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jennifer Bartashus said. “Results were OK, just not great.”
The shares fell as much as 3.7 percent in extended trading Thursday, a move that — if it holds up on Friday — would erase its year-to-date gain. The coffee giant met or beat analysts’ forecasts on everything from adjusted profit to same-store sales.
The reaction from investors mirrored selloffs on positive quarterly results this week from U.S. companies such as Caterpillar and Twitter, a sign that simply meeting expectations isn’t enough in a market that’s looking for reassurance that the economy will pick up speed this year.
For Starbucks, same-store sales increased 2 percent in the Americas region, while analysts estimated a gain of 1.8 percent, according to Consensus Metrix. Earnings excluding certain items amounted to 53 cents a share in the quarter, matching analysts’ projections.
Revenue rose to $6.03 billion. Analysts had projected $5.93 billion.
Starbucks has seen sales growth slow recently, especially in its home market. Along with extra rewards, marketing emails and a branded Visa credit card, the chain is looking to new cold drinks to help its U.S. business, particularly in the slower afternoon period.
“We’re going after the afternoon, which remains our softest day part,” Maw said in an interview. “People’s routines have changed in terms of them being out and about as much.”
Starbucks is ramping up growth in China, and has said that market could be larger than the U.S. some day. But the company may face more competition abroad as Whitbread Plc spins off its Costa Coffee chain following pressure from activist investors. Costa has spread across the U.K., and is focused now on growth in China, where it plans to more than double its stores to 1,200 by 2022.
Comparable sales for Starbucks in China and Asia Pacific climbed 3 percent. Analysts estimated a gain of 2.6 percent. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, they dropped 1 percent, trailing projections.
— With assistance from Brandon Kochkodin and Karen Lin (Bloomberg Global Data).
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
This article was written by Leslie Patton from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].
