Starbucks Signals Worst Is Past Following Quarterly Sales Drop
- Same-store sales were down 9% in the U.S. and globally
- Company forecasts double-digit comparable sales growth in 2021
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Starbucks Corp. capped its fiscal year with better-than-expected quarterly results as the key U.S. and Chinese markets inched closer to growth -- but didn’t quite get there. The shares jostled between gains and losses in late trading.
The coffee giant reported global same-store sales that were down 9% in the fourth quarter, better than the 11.9% drop analysts surveyed by Consensus Metrix were expecting. Although that marks the third straight quarter of overall declines, the size of the drops have abated since the spring, when much of the world was on lockdown. In the U.S., comparable sales fell 9%, beating expectations.