Breed s Hill Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Starbucks Co. (NASDAQ:SBUX)

Breed s Hill Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Starbucks Co. (NASDAQ:SBUX) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 2,292 shares of the coffee company’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Flossbach Von Storch AG lifted its position in shares of Starbucks by 8,677.8% in the fourth quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 2,715,405 shares of the coffee company’s stock valued at $260,706,000 after buying an additional 2,684,470 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Starbucks by 432.5% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,039,633 shares of the coffee company’s stock worth $195,825,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656,591 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Starbucks in the third quarter valued at $147,125,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Starbucks by 44.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,146,033 shares of the coffee company’s stock valued at $493,350,000 after purchasing an additional 1,591,206 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Starbucks by 481.9% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 1,547,411 shares of the coffee company’s stock worth $148,567,000 after buying an additional 1,281,471 shares during the period. 72.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Starbucks

In other news, insider Michael Aaron Conway sold 3,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.03, for a total value of $305,597.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 84,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,912,906.59. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 7,250 shares of company stock valued at $651,738. Corporate insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on SBUX shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Starbucks from $94.00 to $84.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Starbucks in a report on Friday, April 19th. Gordon Haskett downgraded Starbucks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Starbucks from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Starbucks from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Starbucks presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $96.43.

Starbucks Price Performance

Shares of Starbucks stock traded up $2.18 on Thursday, hitting $75.68. 18,574,353 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,977,913. Starbucks Co. has a one year low of $71.80 and a one year high of $108.11. The company has a fifty day moving average of $87.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $93.39. The company has a market capitalization of $85.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.97.

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The coffee company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.79 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $8.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.12 billion. Starbucks had a net margin of 11.38% and a negative return on equity of 49.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Starbucks Co. will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Starbucks Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.01%. Starbucks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.81%.

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.