Starbucks sales miss Street expectations

Although Starbucks’ profit in the first quarter rose a better-than-expected 25% to $540.7 million from $432 million in the year-ago period, same-store sales missed Wall Street expectations.



Same-store sales rose 5%, beneath Wall Street expectations of 5.9%. Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 29, 2013 rose 12% to $4.24 billion from $3.79 billion.



Same-store sales in the Americas region also rose 5%, while analysts had expected a 6.4% increase.



For fiscal 2014, Starbucks boosted its fiscal earnings per share forecast guidance and said it expects to open 1,500 new net stores, including 600 in the Americas.



Starbucks said that online shopping, particularly during the month of December, kept more consumers at home and reduced their visits to its coffee bars



“Holiday 2013 was the first in which many traditional brick-and-mortar retailers experienced in-store foot traffic give way to online shopping in a major way,” said Howard Schultz, chairman, president and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company. “As our solid traffic growth and record Q1 results demonstrate, Starbucks unique combination of physical and digital assets positions us as one of the very few consumer brands with a national and global footprint to benefit from the seismic shift underway.”