Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Starbucks is moving up lately. I’m thinking of buying some shares. What’s your recommendation on the stock?

Article Excerpt

Starbucks Corp., $19.50, symbol SBUX on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 737.1 million; Market cap: $14.4 billion), is a leading retailer and roaster of specialty coffee. Starbucks has 6,871 company-operated stores and 4,395 licensed stores in the U.S. It also has 5,463 stores in over 40 international markets, including 2,061 company-operated outlets and 3,402 joint-venture and licensed stores. In all, Starbucks has 16,729 stores. Roughly 1,000 of these are in Canada. Starbucks offers high-quality coffee and beverages in a variety of flavours, as well as pastries, salads and sandwiches. It also sells coffee-related merchandise (including coffee mugs and coffee machines), plus books, DVDs and CDs. The company has revamped its menu to include oatmeal and fruit smoothies. In addition to its retail operations, Starbucks’ consumer-products group produces bottled water, coffee drinks, espresso drinks and ice creams through joint ventures with companies such as PepsiCo, Kraft Foods and Unilever. In its third quarter, which ended June 28, 2009, Starbucks’ revenue fell 6.6%, to $2.4 billion…