Starbucks stock falls after earnings miss, company expects coronavirus impacts to intensify in Q3

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An earlier version of this article misstated Starbucks’ April earnings guidance. It has been corrected.

Analyst earnings estimates dropped from 66 cents a share at the end of 2019 to 34 cents as of Tuesday, according to FactSet.

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Starbucks Corp. shares fell in the extended session Tuesday after the company missed earnings expectations that had already been pulled back due to concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sales.

Starbucks SBUX, +1.22% stock dropped 1.9% in the extended session.

The company reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $328.4 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with a net income of $663.2 million, or 53 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for international transaction and integration items, among other things earnings were 32 cents a share.

Revenue fell to $6 billion from $6.31 billion in the year-ago period.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated adjusted earnings of 34 cents a share on a share on revenue of $5.89 billion.

The company said it expects the impact from the coronavirus pandemic to intensify in the third quarter, and moderate in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter.

Earlier in April, Starbucks issued a profit warning to investors, saying that earnings would be chopped in half from a year ago because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, the company said it expected earnings of 28 cents a share and adjusted earnings of 32 cents a share for its fiscal second quarter. The company said its estimates include expenses for wages, store operations and other COVID-19 pandemic related expenses. Analysts had expected earnings of 39 cents a share, down from 66 cents a share at the end of 2019, according to FactSet.

Starbucks also said that same-stores sales shrank in the range of 60% to 70% for the last week of March. In China, Starbucks previously said that it was recovering, with sales down 42% for the last week of March, compared with a 90% drop in mid-February.

At the end of the quarter, Starbucks said that of the 58% company-operated U.S. locations that offer drive-through, 76% were open.

Starbucks said April 16 that it was going to start opening a “significant” number of U.S. stores throughout May beyond offering drive-through, using its experience in China as a template. Starbucks said that it had tested different formats for service at more than 300 of its stores. The company said that 95% of its China locations are open.

Shares of Starbucks have gained 2% in the past year, as the S&P 500 SPX, -0.52% index fell 2.1%.

Additional reporting by MarketWatch staff writer Tonya Garcia

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