Starbucks Stock Is Rising Wednesday: What's Going On?

Starbucks Corp SBUX shares are trading higher Wednesday after the company reported fiscal first-quarter financial results. Multiple analysts provided updates following the print.

What Happened: First-quarter revenue increased 8% year-over-year to $9.4 billion, which missed the consensus estimate of $9.59 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. Starbucks reported quarterly earnings of 90 cents per share, which missed analyst estimates of 93 cents per share.

Comparable store sales climbed 5% globally, driven by a 3% increase in comparable transactions and 2% increase in average ticket. Comps increased 5% in North America, 10% in China and 7% internationally during the quarter. 

Rewards memberships grew to 34.3 million in the first quarter, up 13% on a year-over-year basis. Starbucks noted that gift card loads climbed to a record $3.6 billion during the holiday season. The company opened 549 net new stores in the first quarter and ended the period with 38,587 total locations.

“I am proud of the significant margin expansion and double-digit earnings growth we delivered in our first quarter, as it underscores our multiple paths to earnings growth,” said Rachel Ruggeri, CFO of Starbucks.

On the conference call, Ruggeri noted that January sales have been a little bit lighter than anticipated. The company said it expects revenue growth of 7% to 10% for full-year 2024. Starbucks also cut its global same-store sales guidance from a range of 5% to 7% to a new range of 4% to 6%.

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Analyst Changes:

• Barclays maintained Starbucks with an Overweight and lowered the price target from $116 to $112.

• Citigroup maintained Starbucks with a Neutral and raised the price target from $102 to $103.

• Wedbush reiterated Starbucks with a Neutral and maintained a price target of $95.

• Stephens & Co. reiterated Starbucks with an Equal-Weight and maintained a price target of $110.

SBUX Price Action: Starbucks shares were up 5.24% at $99.08 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: JerryUnderscore from Pixabay.