Normally when we hear about coffee chain Starbucks ($SBUX), we hear about its latest kerfuffle with a union, or some other group unhappy about their pay scale. But today, we have word about how Starbucks is securing its future sources of coffee beans with “innovation farms.”
This is not the first time that Starbucks has bought a coffee farm. It actually owned one in Costa Rica 10 years ago. But now, it owns three, and the latest versions—a second in Costa Rica and one in Guatemala—will be put to work to help ensure Starbucks has coffee beans forever.
Coffee production has been under fire of late due to poor weather and growing conditions in Brazil, the world’s biggest coffee supplier. But Starbucks’ new farms are working to change that through new coffee hybrids that work at different elevations and under different soil conditions.
Union Problems Too
Sadly, it would be entirely too optimistic to think that Starbucks news would not involve unionizations. A CNBC report noted that 500 separate Starbucks locations are now unionized. A Starbucks in Bellingham, Washington signed on as the 500th store to be part of Starbucks Workers United, which now counts about 11,000 baristas.
Starbucks is also shaking up its executive ranks. New CEO Brian Niccol got rid of the global chief merchant and product officer position, formerly held by Lyne Castonguay. In fact, Castonguay is out of the company altogether.
Is Starbucks Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SBUX stock based on 15 Buy, seven Hold and two Sell recommendations assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 7.76% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SBUX price target of $100.75 per share implies 5.12% upside potential.
