2009-10-16 01:50:10 - SADIF-Investment Analytics has applied its StockMarks™ stock-rating system to Starbucks Corporation and produced a research report, rating the company's attractiveness to long-term investors.

Mira, Portugal – October 15th, 2009 – SADIF Investment Analytics today announced the release of a new equity research report covering Starbucks Corporation (SBUX). The report utilizes SADIF's powerful StockMarks™ stock rating system and is required reading for any current or potential Starbucks investor.

Report Summary: The share price of Starbucks Corporation took a particularly large hit during 2007 and 2008

as investors believed that the company had over-extended itself in a premium coffee market that appeared to be under threat. CEO Howard Schultz was put back at the helm of the company in January 2008 and within less than six months had announced the closure of 600 of its US stores in attempt to decrease the cannibalization of its own sales. The company's most recent earnings, for its fiscal third quarter ended June 28th, reported that net earnings for the 13-week period were USD 151.5M compared to a net loss of USD 6.7M in fiscal Q3 2008. Starbucks also saw higher operating margins at 8.5% compared to negative 0.8% over the year-earlier period. However, the company's comparable store sales revenue declined 5%. The company has also taken a more cautious approach to its international expansion as international results were hurt by lower numbers of transactions and declines in the value of each transaction. Starbucks released its VIA Ready Brew nationwide across the US at the end of September. The product is an answer to investor fears that premium coffee would be one of the first things that recession-hit consumers would drop from their shopping lists. The company hopes that the product will boost its bottom line, offering cash-strapped consumers a cheaper option to get their premium coffee fix at less than a dollar per cup. Nevertheless, we should focus on the company's long-term fundamentals when making any long-term investment decision. We can assess the company's fundamentals through the use of the StockMarks framework. Starbucks currently has an overall long-term investment-attractiveness rating (Total StockMark or SMT) of 71, rating above the US market average. This rating places the company fourth among ten of its closest US-listed peers, selected on the basis of similarity of business, market positioning factors such as size, and share comparisons.

The complete report breaks down the Total StockMark into its three components – business, management and price, performing a thorough analysis of Starbucks for long-term investors.

A summary of the StockMarks™ ratings for Starbucks Corporation is available here:
sadifanalytics.com/stockmarks/company.php?ticker=SBUX&cod_countr ..

The report has been distributed to Reuters, and forwarded to Yahoo Finance and FT.com. It is available under 'Analyst Reports' from these websites, from multiple professional platforms including Reuters Knowledge, TheMarkets.com, Thomson Research and Capital IQ or directly from SADIF-Investment Analytics at:
sadifanalytics.com/stockmarks/article/hist_article.php?cod_count ..