SEATTLE – Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday that its first fiscal quarter earnings rose 20 percent over last year, driven by strong holiday sales of eggnog lattes and other coffee drinks.
The world’s largest specialty coffee retailer boosted its earnings targets for the year, saying it expects earnings will be 68 cents to 70 cents a share – 5 cents more than previously forecast.
Starbucks shares surged more than 6 percent, or $1.89, in late-session trading, after falling 34 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close at $31.36 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The company, whose stock has traded between $22.29 and $32.46 over the past 52 weeks, released its latest earnings after the markets had closed.
For the 13 weeks ended Jan. 1, Starbucks said it earned $174 million, or 22 cents a share, up from $145 million, or 17 cents a share, in the comparable period of 2004.
Revenue for the latest quarter increased 22 percent to $1.93 billion, up from $1.59 billion in the comparable period last year.
The consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial was 20 cents a share on revenue of $1.93 billion.
Sales at Starbucks’ growing number of international stores posted a slightly bigger increase than sales at U.S. stores.
Total international net revenues increased 25 percent to $314 million for the first fiscal quarter, compared with $251 million for the same period last year. In the United States, total net revenues rose 21 percent to $1.6 billion, compared with $1.3 billion last year.
Michael Casey, Starbucks chief financial officer, said the company sees enormous growth potential in China, where 50 new stores opened over the past year, bringing the country’s total to 221. Casey said he expects China could one day have several thousand stores.
Jim Donald, Starbucks’ president and chief executive, said the company also has high hopes for Brazil, Russia and India, countries where it doesn’t yet have any stores.
Starbucks said it opened about 560 new stores in the latest quarter, bringing the number of its stores to 10,801 in 37 countries. The company said it expects to open 1,800 new stores globally over the next year, about 1,300 of them in the United States and 500 internationally.
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