Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) Shares Soar After Q2 Earnings Forecasts

Everything is going up, up and up for Starbucks Corporation (Nasdaq:SBUX), including its after-market trading share price, after the world’s largest coffee chain reported a record sales quarter. Analysts had expected the company to do well, but not this well.

The company reported that its net income in the three months ended March 29 was $494.9 million, up 15.9 percent from the same quarter last year. Earnings per share rose 17.9 percent to 33 cents. Revenue for the quarter was $4.56 billion, a 17.8 percent jump from the year-ago period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Starbucks to grow net income by 15.5 percent to $493 million; per-share earnings by 17.9 percent to 33 cents; and revenue by 16.9 percent, to $4.53 billion. The company beat the estimates on income and revenue, and matched expected per-share earnings.

Reacting to the news, investors pushed Starbucks' share price up 4.19 percent to $51.50 in after-close trading Thursday.

The beats on revenue and profit came during a particularly challenging quarter for companies that convert profits from foreign currencies to the U.S. dollar, which has gained about 14 percent against the world's major currencies in the first three months of the year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch

“Starbucks Q2 represented another quarter of strong revenue growth and record operating and financial performance all around the world, and despite significant foreign exchange headwinds,” said Scott Maw, Starbucks' chief financial officer.

Meanwhile, the Seattle-based company shattered same-store sales forecasts at 7 percent year-over-year growth at company-owned stores that have been open for more than 13 months, an important retail metric that excludes newer outlets. Analysts' consensus forecast had been for 5.1 percent sales growth. This growth was strongest in the Asia-Pacific region where sales jumped 12 percent; it was lowest in the Africa Middle East region at 2 percent growth.

This strong performance in Asia helps to explain why Starbucks is aggressively expanding its operations there.