NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks Corp. on Thursday raised its forecast for the year, after the coffee chain said more customers are going to its cafes, even in the challenging global economy.
The Seattle-based company says global revenue at cafes open at least a year rose 6 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter, driven by higher customer traffic. The measure is a key gauge because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations.
Starbucks lifted its guidance for the year ending in September 2013 to $2.06 to $2.15 per share. That's up from its previous outlook of $2.04 to $2.14 per share. Analysts expect $2.14 for the year, according to FactSet.
The company also lifted its quarterly dividend 24 percent, to 21 cents.
For the July-September period, Starbucks earned $359 million, or 46 cents per share, from $358.5 million, or 47 cents per share, a year ago. The year-ago results benefited from a gain related to a real estate sale. Revenue rose 11 percent to $3.36 billion.
Analysts expected profit of 45 cents per share on revenue of $3.39 billion.
Shares rose $2.82, or 6.1 percent, to $49.44 in after-market trading. The stock had closed up 72 cents to $46.62 in regular trading.
