- 01Nov
(Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) reported higher quarterly profit on Thursday, as overall sales at its established coffee shops topped analysts' estimates, and it raised its forecast for fiscal 2013.
Shares of the world's biggest coffee chain jumped 6.3 percent to $49.55 in extended trading.
The results were in contrast to others in the restaurant industry, including McDonald's Corp (MCD.N), which have largely been a string of disappointments and diminishing expectations as some of the sector's top performers grapple with the still weak economy and increasing competition from resurgent rivals.
Starbucks net income rose 0.1 percent to $359 million, or 46 cents per share, topping analysts' average forecast by a penny, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Global sales at stores open at least 13 months rose 6 percent, helped by a 5 percent increase in traffic and a 1 percent rise in average spending per visit. That topped the 4.97 percent rise analysts polled by Consensus Metrix had expected.
Overall, revenue rose 11 percent to $3.36 billion.
"Given the momentum with which we ended Q4 and the pipeline of products and plans we have for this holiday quarter ... we feel extremely confident about what's ahead of this quarter and what's ahead of us this whole fiscal year," Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead told Reuters.
As a result, Starbucks set its new earnings per share forecast for fiscal 2013 at $2.06 to $2.15, up from $2.04 to $2.14 per share, previously.
It now plans to open 1,300 net new stores globally, up from 1,200.
Asked if the company's results will be hurt by Hurricane Sandy, Alstead said: "Over the course of the quarter no, it will not be a meaningful impact to us."
Starbucks has reopened most of the 1,000 stores that it shuttered as the super storm approached, Alstead said.
The current holiday quarter is a key period for sales.
(Reporting By Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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