On Friday, Starbucks announced it will begin buying back $5 billion in shares, as part of its program to pay out $25 billion to shareholders via buybacks and dividends through fiscal 2020.
This follows the coffee chain’s $7.15 billion deal with Nestle SA earlier this year that allows it to market Starbucks products outside of the U.S., and this week’s announcement from Bill Ackman that his hedge fund Pershing Square Capital will invest $900 million in Starbucks shares. Starbucks is expected to complete the $5 billion share repurchases by February or March of 2019.
Starbucks' third fiscal quarter earnings-per-share came in at $0.62, slightly higher than Wall Street's expectations of $0.61. However, the company lowered projection for the full year earnings per share to a range of $2.40-$2.42 compared to its previous guidance of $2.43.