Shares of Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) advanced to $71 and change at the close yesterday in New York and have risen 1.53% in pre-market trading Friday, after one of the world’s biggest coffee vendors said its 2014 fiscal second quarter profit rose 10%.
The company reported late Thursday earnings of $0.56 per share — in line with expectations — from $0.51 a share a year earlier, on revenues of $3.87 billion. Analysts were expecting revenues of $3.95 billion. Operating margin expanded to 16.6% from 15.3%.
Starbucks, which ended the quarter with 335 new stores, including the 20,000th Starbucks store, saw global sales at Starbucks cafes open at least 13 months rise 6% vs analysts’ average estimate for a 5.4% gain.
The coffee maker saw its China and Asia Pacific revenue up 24% to $265.3 million for the fiscal 2Q ended on March 30, driven by strong traffic. Comp sales in the region were up 7%.
“While global comparable store sales growth of 6% was impressive, and squarely in line with our targets, even more significant is the fact that we delivered strong, and balanced, revenue and profit growth across all of our reportable segments,” said Howard Schultz, Ceo of Starbucks in a press release.
“The strong momentum we have created in the first half of the year, combined with our robust pipeline of innovation, give us confidence in our ability to meet our fiscal 2014 growth targets.” Starbucks now expects fiscal 2014 EPS in the range of $2.62 to $2.68, up from a range of $2.59 to $2.67 previously.
SBUX has an average 30 day trading volume of 6.1 million shares. The ticker has a 52wk range of $59.13 – $82.50. The company has a current market cap of $54 billion and a t12 P/E ratio of 461.56.
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