Starbucks' Problems At Home And Abroad

&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image getty size-large wp-image-963624692&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/963624692/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;640&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; (Photo by Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Starbucks is losing its coolness. On Wall Street, that is, where its shares have been heading south in recent months, bucking the market trend.

In the last three months, Starbucks&a;rsquo; stock is down 11.38%, while the overall market is up 4.10%.

What&a;rsquo;s haunting Starbucks stock?

A number of problems at home and abroad. At home, Starbucks is facing market saturation, as there&a;rsquo;s a Starbucks store or two in almost every neighborhood. &l;span&g;&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;This means that there are no more opportunities to open new stores.

With market saturation comes store cannibalization, a situation where one company store takes away business from other stores.

Market saturation and store cannibalization can explain the company&a;rsquo;s sluggish same store sales in the U.S., which has forced Starbucks to announce store closings in recent weeks.

Then there&a;rsquo;s Starbucks&a;rsquo; loss of identity. &l;span&g;For years,&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;the company&l;span&g;&a;nbsp;has been known as a &q;third place,&q; an &q;affordable luxury&q; where middle-age baby boomers could share and enjoy a cup of coffee with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.&l;/span&g;

&l;span&g;In recent years, however, Starbucks has been attracting bigger and bigger crowds, from all walks of life, including families with young children.&l;/span&g;

&l;span&g;&l;/span&g;

&l;span&g;This means that Starbucks is turning from a cool &q;third place&q; to another routine &a;ldquo;first place.&q;&l;/span&g;

&l;/p&g;&l;div class=&q;table-wrapper&q;&g;&l;table&g;&l;tbody&g;&l;tr&g;&l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;Company/Index&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;3-month performance&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;5-year performance&l;/td&g; &l;/tr&g;&l;tr&g;&l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;Starbucks&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;-11.38%&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;55.57%&l;/td&g; &l;/tr&g;&l;tr&g;&l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;Dunkin Brands&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;16.46&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;49.62&l;/td&g; &l;/tr&g;&l;tr&g;&l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;S&a;amp;P 500&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;4.10&l;/td&g; &l;td width=&q;208&q;&g;68.24&l;/td&g; &l;/tr&g;&l;/tbody&g;&l;/table&g;&l;/div&g;

Source: Finance.yahoo.com 6/25/2018

Meanwhile, there&a;rsquo;s competition at home and abroad from both established and upstart companies.

For years,&a;nbsp;Starbucks&a;nbsp;had little competition both at home and abroad. For a simple reason: competitors couldn&a;rsquo;t match its business model. Some replicated the company&a;rsquo;s espresso beverage&a;nbsp;menu -- like&a;nbsp;McDonald&s;s with its McCafe product line. Others copied its &q;third place&q;&a;nbsp;concept -- like&a;nbsp;Costa Cafe in London and Caffe Bene in New York City.

But none of these competitors succeeded in developing a business model that beats Starbucks in all four advantages: beverage, store setting, service, and culture.

With little competition, Starbucks sales soared. Back in 2015, for instance, Starbucks&a;rsquo; revenues and earnings grew at the high teens levels, as McDonald&a;rsquo;s revenues and earnings headed south.

That was music in the ears of momentum investors who fell in love with the stock.

But in recent years, things have changed, both at home and abroad. At home, Starbucks is facing growing competition from McDonald&a;rsquo;s McCafes and all-day breakfast, as evidenced by the recent turnaround in McDonald&a;rsquo;s sales. Overseas, Starbucks is facing strong competition from home-grown start-ups that have managed to match and even exceed Starbucks &a;ldquo;third place&a;rdquo; model.

Like Greece-based Mikel Coffee Company, which features a portfolio of 130 beverages &a;mdash; and an elegantly designed &a;ldquo;third place&a;rdquo;&a;nbsp;look,&a;nbsp;staffed by carefully recruited and well-trained and dedicated associates.

That&s;s how Mikel expanded like&a;nbsp;wildfire in Greece, the Middle-East and the U.K., opening up 185 stores in nine years, with plans to open more stores in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the U.S.

The bottom line: Starbucks&a;rsquo; long bull run is over, as the company turns from a growth to a value play.

U.S. Auto Parts Network (PRTS) Given Daily News Impact Score of 0.05

Media stories about U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS) have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research firm scores the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. U.S. Auto Parts Network earned a news sentiment score of 0.05 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the specialty retailer an impact score of 45.533280416614 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the near future.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on PRTS shares. ValuEngine lowered U.S. Auto Parts Network from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 7th. Zacks Investment Research raised U.S. Auto Parts Network from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 14th. Finally, Roth Capital lowered U.S. Auto Parts Network from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $3.00 to $1.80 in a research report on Thursday, May 10th.

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U.S. Auto Parts Network traded down $0.02, reaching $1.52, on Friday, according to MarketBeat.com. The company had a trading volume of 2,211,096 shares, compared to its average volume of 136,471. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.86 million, a P/E ratio of 15.20 and a beta of 1.40. U.S. Auto Parts Network has a 52-week low of $1.45 and a 52-week high of $3.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 8th. The specialty retailer reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02. The business had revenue of $78.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.28 million. U.S. Auto Parts Network had a return on equity of 6.57% and a net margin of 8.14%. sell-side analysts predict that U.S. Auto Parts Network will post -0.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

U.S. Auto Parts Network Company Profile

U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an online provider of aftermarket auto parts and accessories primarily in the United States and the Philippines. It offers collision parts, such as parts for the exterior of an automobile; mirror products; engine parts comprising engine and chassis components, as well as other mechanical and electrical parts; and performance parts and accessories to individual consumers through its network of e-commerce Websites and online marketplaces.