Based on the aggregated intelligence of 150,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, specialty coffee giant Starbucks
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Starbucks' business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Starbucks facts
Headquarters (Founded) |
Seattle (1985) |
Market Cap |
$17.4 billion |
Industry |
Restaurants |
Trailing-12-Month Revenue |
$9.9 billion |
Management |
Founder/CEO Howard Schultz |
Compound Annual Revenue and Net Income Growth (Over Past 3 Years) |
6.4% and (1.5%) |
1-Year Return |
145% |
Price-to-Earnings (SBUX and S&P 500) |
31 and 11.7 |
Cash / Debt |
$1.4 billion / $549.5 million |
Competitors |
McDonald's |
Other Restaurant Stock Alternatives |
Yum! Brands |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 23% of the 7,318 members who have rated Starbucks believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include tortillatree and All-Star kurtdabear, who is ranked in the top 5% of our community.
Late last year, tortillatree singled out Starbucks as a solid company selling at a steep price:
Starbucks will meld and adapt to, while innovatively changing, the business world it operates in, and I give the company a thumbs up. However, with the price of this volatile stock at a 52 week high -- given the current state and future of the economy and commercial real estate market, this is a short-term downgrade until the stock price gets back to a fair value.
In a pitch from last week, kurtdabear offered a totally bearish view on the stock:
Having roughly tripled this year, [Starbucks] is now more ridiculously overpriced than it was under-priced at $8. A company sporting a PE of 30 and selling expensive products to yuppies and Gen-X'ers as they go broke is not one I would pick to prosper during a depression. Of course, I could be wrong. ... Essentially [Starbucks'] future is behind it, and the company will probably eventually just evaporate like Howard Johnson's and their ilk.
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