Starbucks raises outlook but shares slip

Starbucks Corp reported higher quarterly profit on Thursday that matched Wall Street estimates and it raised its full-year earnings forecast.

The world's biggest coffee chain cited strength in the United States, its top market, despite an industry-wide spending downturn in February due to a U.S. payroll tax increase that lowered take-home pay.

Still, Starbucks shares fell 2.5 percent in afterhours trading.

Starbucks said net earnings rose to $390.4 million, or 51 cents per share, in the fiscal second quarter that ended on March 31 from $309.9 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding a 3 cent-per-share gain on the sale of its stake in a Mexican venture, earnings were 48 cents per share, matching analysts' average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $3.56 billion.

The company said it expects earnings of $2.12 to $2.18 per share this year, up from a prior target range of $2.06 to $2.15.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller in New York and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles. Editing by Andre Grenon)