Starbucks’ stock drops on weak profit forecast

Shares of Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) were down nearly 2% in morning hours on Wednesday after the company’s forecast for fiscal year 2020 earnings growth turned out weaker-than-expected.

The company now expects EPS for fiscal year 2020 to be below its ongoing growth model of 10%. The outlook was released in a slide presentation by CFO Pat Grismer at the Goldman Sachs’ Global Retailing Conference.  

Starbucks expects fiscal year 2020 adjusted EPS growth to be negatively impacted by one-time tax benefits in fiscal year 2019. The company also pulled forward its FY20 expected share repurchases into FY19.  

Also see: Starbucks Q3 2019 Earnings Report

Starbucks expects earnings for fiscal year 2019 to range from $2.80-2.82 per share. The company also stated that its long-term double-digit EPS growth model is intact.

Analysts have forecast EPS of $3.12 for fiscal year 2020, which represents a 10.6% increase over the estimated fiscal year 2019 EPS of $2.82.  

Starbucks had topped revenue and earnings estimates for the third quarter of 2019 triggering a stock rally at the time. Revenues rose 8% to $6.8 billion while adjusted EPS jumped 26% to $0.78.

Starbucks’ shares have gained over 49% so far this year and 24% in the past three months.

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