Prudent Man Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Starbucks Co. (NASDAQ:SBUX)

Prudent Man Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Starbucks Co. (NASDAQ:SBUX) by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,242 shares of the coffee company’s stock after selling 364 shares during the period. Prudent Man Advisors LLC’s holdings in Starbucks were worth $1,312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its holdings in Starbucks by 80,389.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 125,195,416 shares of the coffee company’s stock valued at $12,401,858,000 after purchasing an additional 125,039,873 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Starbucks in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,222,931,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Starbucks by 115,334.1% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,493,639 shares of the coffee company’s stock valued at $842,569,000 after purchasing an additional 8,486,281 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Starbucks by 46.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 26,718,368 shares of the coffee company’s stock valued at $2,650,462,000 after purchasing an additional 8,451,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Starbucks in the 1st quarter valued at about $190,270,000. 70.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SBUX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Starbucks from $104.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Starbucks from $117.00 to $110.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Starbucks from $107.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 3rd. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Starbucks from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $117.00 to $107.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Starbucks from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Starbucks currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.52.

Starbucks Price Performance

Shares of SBUX traded down $1.14 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $104.43. 1,315,002 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,353,826. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.98. Starbucks Co. has a twelve month low of $89.21 and a twelve month high of $115.48. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.73.

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The coffee company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $9.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.29 billion. Starbucks had a negative return on equity of 48.79% and a net margin of 11.47%. Starbucks’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.81 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Starbucks Co. will post 4.15 EPS for the current year.

Starbucks Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 24th. Investors of record on Friday, November 10th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 9th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. This is a boost from Starbucks’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Starbucks’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 63.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michael Aaron Conway sold 6,500 shares of Starbucks stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.77, for a total value of $681,005.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 72,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,629,560.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Starbucks news, CFO Rachel Ruggeri sold 504 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.66, for a total transaction of $53,252.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 75,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,927,352.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael Aaron Conway sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.77, for a total value of $681,005.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 72,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,629,560.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a roaster, marketer, and retailer of specialty 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.