(Bloomberg) – Starbucks Corp. shares. suffered a record losing streak as concerns grow that sales trends at the coffee giant have cooled in recent weeks.
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The stock fell 1.6% on Monday, its 11th straight decline. This is the longest decline since Starbucks’ stock market debut in 1992. Overall, the decline has wiped out 9.4% of Starbucks’ market value, a decline of nearly $12 billion.
Third-party sales data signaled a “material slowdown” at Starbucks in November after the coffee giant posted strong comparable sales growth of 8% in its fourth fiscal quarter, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst John Ivankoe wrote in a note on Monday.
Ivankoe cut its first-quarter U.S. comparable sales forecast to 4% growth compared to the same period last year to reflect a potentially less successful holiday promotion than the fall pumpkin spice latte event. He had expected domestic same-store sales to rise 6% quarterly.
Starbucks shares rallied in the first half of November after the coffee company reported quarterly results that beat expectations and offered a better-than-feared revenue outlook for fiscal 2024. But the stock has fallen over the past two weeks amid concerns about “still.” “slow China data” and sales trends, says Ivankoe, who is overweight the stock.
Nick Setyan, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc., said investors were concerned that U.S. comparable sales in the current quarter could fall short of consensus expectations as credit card data signaled a slowdown in the past three weeks. He gives Starbucks a neutral rating and calls the stock one of the stocks most sensitive to signs of consumer weakness.
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Sales trends in the snack and coffee industries slowed week-on-week in the seven-day period ending Nov. 19, according to data-driven research firm M Science. The sales decline was due to weaker trends at Starbucks, analyst Matthew Goodman wrote in a Dec. 1 note. This is the third week in a row of slowing trends amid boycotts and recent labor strikes, including on Red Cup Day (November 16). which affected up to 200 locations in the USA.
Shares of Starbucks are down 1.6% this year, compared with an 11% gain for the S&P 1500 Composite Restaurants Index.
(Updates with closing prices)
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