Financial Analysis - Starbucks Corporation
Travis Demmons
Dr. Said
FIN 534 – Financial Management
March 16, 2013

In this assignment, a savvy financial analyst researching companies in which to invest a U.S. publically-traded company that would be a good investment was chosen. After a lengthy search, a company that my family is unduly familiar with, Starbucks, was chosen and in the following pages a financial analysis will be described. The world renowned Starbucks Corporation (New York Stock Exchange: SBUX) has gone from a Seattle-based company to one of the world's most powerful and recognizable brands of high-quality coffee. Starbucks welcomes millions of customers through their doors every day in …show more content…

Almost half of the U.S. workforce has, at one time or another, worked in a restaurant. During the last annual report, the restaurant industry accrued $580 million of sales during the period (last full period report was for 2011). While the industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, so have the sales numbers. Over the past three decades, the restaurant industry has seen successive growths in recorded sales and the consumers are treating food prepared away from home as a necessity rather than a special event. Within the U.S. alone, Starbucks currently has over 14,500 stores. Over the past three years, Starbucks has expanded, adding 3,500 stores, often within a close proximity to already existing Starbucks stores. Up until recent years, Starbucks has achieved significant growth in both transactions per store and same store sales. However, due to the downturn the U.S. economy has faced recently, investors feel that growth figures, especially within the U.S. market, could end up saturating the aforementioned market and leaving Starbucks with no option but to close some stores (this has actually already commenced). Nevertheless, Starbucks long term plans call for them to double U.S. locations (up to 20,000) and eventually open 40,000 locations worldwide. Even with the global economy continuing its long road to recovery, Starbucks is still planning to open an average of more than