Starbucks Shares Fall 4.3% After Company Sales, Outlook Miss Estimates

Starbucks Corp. shares fell 4.3% in after-hours trading on Thursday after the coffee-house giant reported disappointing fourth-quarter sales and first-quarter outlook. Starbucks reported a profit of $587.9 million, or 77 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.23 billion, or $1.64 a share, in the year-earlier period. Its adjusted per-share profit came to 74 cents, matching the FactSet consensus. Total revenue rose 10.3% to $4.18 billion, missing the FactSet consensus of $4.24 billion. Starbucks sees adjusted first-quarter profit of 79 cents to 81 cents a share and fiscal 2015 per-share profit of $3.08 to $3.13 a share Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for profit of 83 cents a share in the first quarter and $3.17 a share for the year. In regular trading, shares have fallen 1.3% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 8%.

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