Dallas, Texas 10/21/2013 (Financialstrend) – Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) was reaffirmed at Outperform by Research agency Bernstein. It has also raised the target price for the stock from $79.31 as of close of business on October 18 to $90 over the next few months. The ratings agency is hung ho about the unexplored potential of the speciality eatery in Latin America.
The rating agency bullishness about the stock is being matched by Starbucks with respect to garnering a bigger play for itself in the aerated beverages and fruit juice market. It has filed a trade mark on October 14 on brand Fizzio. This move by the coffee chain maker has created a lot of buzz among the entrenched soda and carbonated drink makers. If it decides to pour in more investment into research and development of its own beverages and dispenser machines, then its current partners like Soda Stream which provide vending machines will be a worried lot.
In a related move, Starbucks in early October had announced that it has pushed up its juice production by four times at its California plant. Readers should note that the $59.46 billion market capitalized speciality eatery chain has been steadily building up production of fresh juice that it markets under brand Evolution.
It is this streak of planning ahead and evolving its product offerings to align with changing customer preferences which has allowed this giant with annual sales of $14 billion to stay ahead of its competition. In its second quarter ending June 30, it had managed to post a increase of 13% in sales on a quarter on quarter basis. It has also managed to return share holder value by paying an annualized dividend yield of 1.06%. Its stock value has also appreciated by close to 64% in the past 12 months with the current share price setting a new 52 week high valuation.
