Starbucks full year numbers

Starbucks, one of the Vestact recommended stocks, reported numbers post the market close last evening. It was a meet, in terms of what matters for the people who suffer from quarteritis. Quarteritis is a disease whereby you judge a company purely on the metrics of what the market analysts expect the company to earn. And you can make a sweeping statement like, they had an excellent quarter, what a stock, or rubbish quarter, rubbish stock. Eddy Elfenbein captured it perfectly in his Friday morning message, where he quoted the doyen of index investing, Jack Bogle: "The stock market is a giant distraction to the business of investing." We try and stress many times that we own companies, not share prices. The share price represents the prospects at any one given time, whether you are an investor, speculator, stapler, trader, or whatever you call yourself, that is the price and that is what someone is willing to pay. Bogle is right, at times it seems nuts.

Back to the business of roasting beans and serving up a cup of Joe. The origins, like in beans sources in years gone by, are a little lost in time, research suggests that reference to "Joe" means that coffee was the drink of the common man. Coffee smells and tastes delicious, the side effects and positive attributes include heightened heart rate and breathing. Which I guess can be both good and bad. Coffee is used to revive mental and physical fatigue, according to WebMD. And we all know WebMD is always right! These results, luckily enough for us, were not only the for the fourth quarter, by extension they were full year number reporting time too. So let us first whizz through the quarterly numbers. EPS increased 16 percent to 43 cents, which was a Q4 record, revenues jumped 18 percent to 4.9 billion Dollars, operating income was also a record for Q4, up 13 percent to 969 million Dollars.

Full year revenues were 17 percent higher than 2014 revenues to 19.2 billion Dollars, with consolidated operating income up 17 percent to 3.6 billion Dollars. EPS increased 35 percent to 1.82 Dollars. Over the year the company opened 1677 new stores, net, to end out the financial year at a whisker over 23 thousand stores across 68 countries. And of course, here locally, Taste Holdings will be in a position to sell Starbucks coffee across our fine land. Of course hipsters everywhere are outraged, yet their look is the same, chequered shirts, well groomed beards, rolled up jeans, sneakers made up of canes, snappy hat, Vespa and of course organic beer and coffee. I have an idea, if you don't like it, don't drink it, OK?

Across their geographies it is evident that the growth engine is going to be in China/Asia Pacific, after the integration of Starbucks Japan during the financial year. And they plan to add 900 stores, half of all the stores this year for the group in the China/Asia Pacific region, 700 in the US and the balance, 200 in the EMEA. EMEA is Europe, the Middle East and Africa. That area will continue to be the future of the business, and is so far away from matching the presence of Nike and Apple in that region. The truth is that you cannot lie to any customers across the globe on quality, and what you will pay for it. Starbucks checks many boxes, both ethically and of course quality.

The stock is down in the pre market, just a little less than a percent. Again, when you are primed for growth, you must deliver more than the market expects. We are comfortable that the share price represents very much the future, and that future is bright. The company and accordingly the stock price will continue to march onwards, gathering new and loyal customers across the globe, the expansion story remains intact, and it is a growth business with a quality product. We continue to add to Starbucks.