Coffee buzz: Starbucks highlights aggressive growth plans at investor event
Justin Sullivan

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) fell slightly on Wednesday with the coffee chain juggernaut's investor day event running up against a down day for the stock market in general.
As expected, outgoing CEO Howard Schultz told investors and analysts that the company is forecasting double-digit growth for revenue and earnings per share.
SBUX also plans to build roughly 2K new U.S. stores in the next few years as it continues to expand. Starbucks (SBUX) also intends to invest roughly $450M to upgrade existing cafes with new equipment and technology. That new tech is expected to significantly help with the prep of customized cold drinks.
For North America, revenue is forecast to be 40% higher in three years with the store expansion, pricing, and innovation all kicking in.
Internationally, Starbucks (SBUX) expects to operate 9K stores in China and 2K stores in Japan by 2025.
The read from the company is that staffing issues have improved considerably. For investors, SBUX execs hinted that a return to stock buybacks may not be far off.
Founder Howard Schultz lamented once again that Starbucks (SBUX) may have lost its way during the pandemic, but he pointed to a shift in momentum with the coffee seller notching the best sales week in its 51-year history in August when the fall drink lineup returned.
Shares of SBUX were down 0.66% at 2:10 p.m. 
The Seeking Alpha Quant Rating on SBUX is flashing Buy.