Finance & Capital Management

Seattle -- Starbucks on Wednesday reported that its second-quarter profit rose 20% as more customers visited its stores, and it raised its earnings forecast for the year.

The company said it earned $261.6 million for the quarter ended April 3, up from $217.3 million a year earlier. Revenue rose nearly 10% to $2.79 billion.

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela's said Thursday that stronger revenue helped its fiscal first-quarter profit more than double from results weighed down by a hefty charge a year ago.

The reported net income of $17.8 million in the three months ended April 2, up from $8.1 million a year earlier.

The year-ago period included an $11.9 million charge related to a 2009 FDIC compliance examination.

Revenue increased 5% to $586.7 million, from $559.6 million. Same-store sales rose 8.9%.

Washington, D.C. -- Commercial real estate information company CoStar Group has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LoopNet, the leading online commercial real estate marketplace.

“CoStar revolutionized how the industry researches commercial real estate and LoopNet revolutionized the way the industry markets commercial real estate," said Andrew C. Florance, president and CEO, CoStar. "We expect the combination of our companies to give the $11 trillion commercial real estate market the full benefit of the Internet."

By Jim McNeill and Gary K. Brucker Jr., [email protected], [email protected]

Dallas -- 7-Eleven has signed an agreement to purchase Wilson Farms, a Buffalo-based convenience store chain with 188 locations in New York State, with an expected closing in the second quarter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores CEO Mike Duke said rising gas prices are hurting the chain’s main customers, who are having an even harder time stretching their dollars to the next payday than they did a year ago.

"There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact on our customers," said Duke at an event that was part of The Wall Street Journal's executive breakfast series,  according to the Associated Press. "There's more pressure."

Camp Hill, Pa. -- Rite Aid's April sales rose thanks in part to bustling business at its pharmacies.

Rite Aid’s same-store sales rose 0.5% over the four weeks ended April 23, with pharmacy revenue up 1%. Sales of nonpharmacy fell 0.4%. Prescriptions filled at those stores rose 0.7%.

Total April sales fell 0.4% to $1.95 billion from $1.96 billion. The company had 4,705 stores as of April 23, 68 less than a year ago.

Austin, Texas -- T. Stacy & Associates, who has been involved with some of Austin’s most iconic buildings, announced that it will reconfigure street-level space in its headquarters building at 823 Congress Avenue to a size and quality sufficient to attract a major retailer and that it has begun an aggressive search to find the “perfect tenant.”

Tampa, Fla. -- RMC Property Group announced it has acquired Carrollwood Corporate Center in Tampa, Fla., and is expanding and moving its corporate offices to the office building.

The Class A office building encompasses 20,000 sq. ft.
 

Woodbridge, N.J. -- Fameco Real Estate announced that Scott Jennerich has joined the Fameco organization and will be based out of its Woodbridge, N.J., office.

Jennerich previously led Trinity Real Estate Advisors, a consulting company specializing nationally in retail real estate, land development and the shopping center industry. He will join Fameco as the president of Trinity Real Estate Advisors, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Fameco Real Estate.