Starbucks Stock Drops After Latest Results Disappoint
Shares of Starbucks (
SBUX
) dropped Wednesday, sliding after the coffee giant’s latest results disappointed and its new CFO declined to offer an outlook for the months to come.
Starbucks stock was down more than 8% in early trading Wednesday, a move that has the shares off roughly 15% this year. The company last night reported
fiscal second-quarter financial results
that were below Wall Street’s expectations—and were "disappointing," according to comments on a Tuesday evening conference call last night from CEO Brian Niccol, who joined from Chipotle
last year
.
The company, which is busy with a wide-ranging
turnaround effort
, named Cathy Smith its CFO earlier this year; Smith on the call said she was ”still learning the business, and it would be premature for me to provide such insight,” according to a transcript made available by AlphaSense.
“While our financial results are far from Starbucks’ potential, I am confident we have the right strategy,” Smith said.
Wall Street analysts are somewhat lukewarm on the company’s shares these days. Visible Alpha’s consensus price target a bit below $92 is an 8% premium to Tuesday’s close, but that would still be below the stock’s 52-week high a few bucks under $120, seen earlier this year—and closer to 52-week lows above $70.
“We acknowledge visibility into near-term numbers is low,” wrote Deutsche Bank analysts, whose $97 price target is a bit higher than the average. “We believe Starbucks is making the right investments for the business long term, supporting our high conviction in the success of the turnaround.”