Starbucks (SBUX) delivered fiscal third quarter results on Thursday that topped analysts expectations.
Here are the results:
Adjusted EPS: 78 cents
Revenue: $6.82 billion
Analysts polled by Bloomberg, on average, expected the following adjusted earnings of 72 cents per share on revenue of $6.66 billion.
The closely-followed same store sales number came in at 6% globally, beating forecasts of 4.2%. In the U.S., Starbucks posted same stores sales growth of 7%, while the China/Asia Pacific business saw an increase of 5%.
“Our two targeted long-term growth markets, the U.S. and China, performed extremely well across a number of measures as a result of our focus on enhancing the customer experience, driving new beverage innovation and accelerating the expansion of our digital customer relationships. Given the strong momentum across our business, we are raising our full-year financial outlook,” said CEO Kevin Johnson.
Starbucks raised its full-year 2019 GAAP earnings per share to the range of $2.86 to $2.88, up from $2.40 to $2.44.
Digital has become a key driver for same-store sales. Starbucks Rewards now has more than 17.2 million daily active users, up 14% from a year ago.
This week, Starbucks has announced quite a bit of news relating to its digital initiatives. The company announced on Monday that it plans to license parts of its mobile app's software intellectual property, to build a new cloud software as a service platform for the broader restaurant industry.
The deal represents a significant opportunity for Starbucks’ own digital business. The Starbucks Rewards program is hugely successful in the U.S., with nearly 17 million active members. That said, there's still plenty of room for growth for the global coffee giant, which sees more than 100 million customers enter its stores each week.
Elsewhere, Starbucks said it's expanding its delivery partnership with Uber Eats (UBER) to be available across the U.S. by 2020.
Shares of Starbucks were last up about 5% in the late session, touching a new all-time high.
Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
