Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Can I have your opinion on Starbucks? Is it a buy? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Starbucks Corp., $57.39, symbol SBUX on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $82.8 billion; www.starbucks.com), is a leading seller and roaster of specialty coffee. Starbucks has 12,444 company-operated stores and 11,477 licensed outlets in 72 countries. That’s a total of 23,921. Stores in the Americas supply 69% of its sales, followed by China and the Asia-Pacific region (14%), and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (5%). It gets a further 9% of its sales by selling coffee and other beverages through supermarkets and 3% from online sales and other activities. In its fiscal 2016 second quarter, which ended March 27, 2016, the company’s sales rose 9.4%, to $4.99 billion from $4.56 billion a year earlier. That’s partly because it opened 350 stores, net of closures, during the quarter. On a same-store basis, sales rose 6% thanks to an increase in the number of transactions and the selling prices. Earnings…