During a recent HedgeyeTV presentation to institutional subscribers, Hedgeye Restaurants analyst Howard Penney laid out his sell call on Starbucks. In the excerpt above, Penney gives the five reasons the company isn’t, as one of his competitors claimed recently, “the greatest growth company in all of retail.”
“Starbucks is a great company but it’s a cyclical business,” says Penney. He listed the top five issues the company faces going forward:
1. Mobile order and pay is slowing down
2. The company had to change its loyalty program
3. CEO Howard Shultz is “stepping back” from day-to-day operations
4. The company is contending with labor inflation
5. Margins are peaking
Penney concludes, “It’s just not the great company that it was.”
Bottom Line: Sell Starbucks
