Starbucks Co. (NASDAQ:SBUX) Announces $0.61 Quarterly Dividend

Starbucks Co. (NASDAQ:SBUX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 11th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.61 per share by the coffee company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%.

Starbucks has increased its dividend by an average of 8.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Starbucks has a dividend payout ratio of 77.5% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Analysts expect Starbucks to earn $3.70 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.9%.

Starbucks Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SBUX traded up $0.26 on Wednesday, hitting $98.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,004,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,844,501. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $89.19. The company has a market capitalization of $111.59 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.97. Starbucks has a 1 year low of $71.55 and a 1 year high of $103.32.

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The coffee company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. The business had revenue of $9.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.60 billion. Starbucks had a negative return on equity of 46.39% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.06 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Starbucks will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on SBUX. Wedbush lowered their price target on shares of Starbucks from $98.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Redburn Atlantic restated a “sell” rating and set a $77.00 price target (down from $84.00) on shares of Starbucks in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Starbucks in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Starbucks from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $85.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Starbucks from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $92.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Starbucks has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $103.77.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Rachel Ruggeri sold 1,491 shares of Starbucks stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.54, for a total value of $148,414.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 80,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,975,542.96. The trade was a 1.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

About Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a roaster, marketer, and retailer of coffee worldwide. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Channel Development. Its stores offer coffee and tea beverages, roasted whole beans and ground coffees, single serve products, and ready-to-drink beverages; and various food products, such as pastries, breakfast sandwiches, and lunch items.