Diamonds and Dogs

1/23/15

Starbucks gets a shot of expresso

Starbucks (SBUX) surged 6% to a new all-time high, its biggest one-day gain in a year and a half, after fiscal first-quarter earnings came in well above Street views. Analysts at Wells Fargo called the coffee-maker's results "grande" and poured it a "venti" outlook.  Jefferies analyst called Starbucks the best growth story in large cap arena with momentum into the next quarter on the back of strong gift-card sales during the holidays. Three analyst upgrades with price targets of $95, $100, & $101 also lent support to investor confidence in the coffee maker share price. A great day to be long Starbucks.  

UPS was down, down, down

United Postal Service or UPS dropped 10% today after lower guidance for the holiday laden fourth quarter. After a terrible 2013 holiday when an unexpected crush of last-minute shipping and terrible weather led millions of late deliveries, UPS made sure they were prepared this year which pleased customers, but hurt their bottom line. UPS lowered fourth quarter guidance to $1.27 a share verse estimates of $1.47 a share. UPS also lowered full year guidance by a similar amount. All that hard work to please customers went for nought.