Starbucks Introduces Its 2015 Earnings and Sales Outlook

There were additional items which stood out with earnings. Starbucks had strong comparable store sales gains of 6% globally and 7% in the United States. Channel development revenues also increased by 13%, and the consolidated operating margin expanded to 18.5%.

As for guidance, Starbucks now sees future results having operating margin improvement now targeted at 200 basis points over its fiscal year 2013. For 2014, Starbucks sees earnings of $2.70 to $2.72 per share or $2.65 to $2.67 per share if you exclude a benefit. Thomson Reuters was calling for earnings to be $2.67 per share.

Starbucks went out on a limb for investors today with the initiation of its fiscal 2015 guidance. The company offered up the following guidance metrics:

• Revenue growth of 10% or greater (in line with Thomson Reuters’ 10.7%)
• EPS growth of 15% to 20% over Fiscal 2014 based on Non-GAAP earnings (targeted at 18% by Thomson Reuters)
• Global comparable store sales growth in the mid single-digits
• To open an additional 1,600 net new stores globally

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Starbucks closed up 1.6% at $80.45 in regular trading on Thursday, versus a 52-week range of $66.30 to $82.50. The consensus analyst price target was $88.63 prior to earnings. After-hours trading indications initially had shares down 0.85 around $79.85 or so, but we will wait for the dust to settle and to see where the analysts give their rankings on Friday morning.