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Empresas y finanzas

Corrected: Starbucks profit tops view, U.S. sales jump


    (Corrects to show rise in U.S. spending per visit was 5 percent, not 4 percent in paragraph 5)

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - STARBUCKS (SBUX.NQ)Corp reported a profit that topped analysts' view and boosted its 2010 profit forecast as a healing U.S. economy brewed up an increase in customer visits and sales.

    Shares of the company rose about 1 percent on the news.

    Starbucks' net income jumped to $217.3 million, or 28 cents per share, for the fiscal second quarter, from the year-ago quarter's profit of $25 million, or 3 cents a share.

    Excluding restructuring charges, Starbucks earned 29 cents a share in the latest quarter, topping analysts' call for a profit of nearly 25 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

    Total net revenue rose almost 9 percent to $2.53 billion during the quarter ended March 28. Sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months jumped 7 percent, driven by a 3 percent increase in customer visits, or traffic, and a 5 percent rise in spending per visit.

    The Seattle-based chain, which slashed costs and shuttered more than 900 outlets in a broad-based restructuring, raised its fiscal 2010 earnings forecast to a range of $1.19 to $1.22 per share, from $1.05 to $1.08 per share previously.

    Shares of Starbucks, which closed at $25.39 on the Nasdaq, rose to $25.67 in extended trade.

    (Reporting by Lisa Baertlein; Editing by Bernard Orr)