Shares of Starbucks (SBUX 1.06%) were up today on solid earnings news, but one number that stood out was the coffee slinger's reduced traffic. While any business with stores or restaurants needs to keep traffic high and growing in order to succeed, Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser tells investors in this video why he couldn't be less worried.
He notes that Starbucks offers so many things to its consumers, not just coffee but also food and tea that people love and rely on, and points to a time in 2012 when traffic for the company fell a bit. He highlights the levers the company pulled to stoke traffic levels back upward and how successful that was, and discusses some tools in Starbucks' kit that he thinks will easily be successful this time. Also, the company saw $1.4 billion loaded onto Starbucks rewards cards during the last quarter, which is money paid to the company today for the promise of coffee tomorrow, something that Jason sees as extremely powerful.
So is Starbucks a buy today? Jason certainly thinks so. With enormous growth opportunities still ahead for the company in developing markets such as India and China, an excellent leadership team, and so many more ways for it to connect with consumers in the future, he sees this as the perfect long-term buy-and-hold.
