Starbucks beats view, raises targets

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) raised its financial forecasts for 2010 in the latest sign a year-long turnaround effort is boosting margins and putting it back on track for growth, sending shares up 4 percent.

The company, which has been slashing its outlets, laying people off and reducing costs, raised its target for fiscal 2010 earnings -- excluding items -- to growth of 15 percent to 20 percent from a previously forecast growth range of 13 percent to 18 percent.

Starbucks' profit topped analysts' estimates in the previous quarter, signalling that performance may be improving at a company that expanded at a frenetic pace just before the U.S. economy headed into recession.

Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead said more people are visiting Starbucks' cafes and spending a bit more when they do, a trend that started in the third quarter and gained momentum towards the end of the fourth.

Chief Executive Howard Schultz is now turning towards new markets, including China, the world's No. 3 economy. Schultz told analysts on a conference call he foresaw the potential for thousands of stores there, from hundreds now.

Starbucks reported a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its forecasts.

The company's net income for its fiscal fourth quarter, ended September 27, was $150 million (90 million pounds), or 20 cents per share. A year earlier, Starbucks reported net income of $ 5.4 million, or 1 cent per share.

Excluding items, Starbucks earned 24 cents a share in the latest quarter, topping analysts' average forecast of 21 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.