Coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX) seems to be in the middle of its turnaround phase, with a lot of changes hitting hard and fast. Changes have hit some of the coffeehouses themselves, and of course, the move of many functions from Seattle to Nashville has been noticed as well. A new report is less favorable to the average Starbucks worker, though, as 61 positions have been axed at the Seattle headquarters. Starbucks stock edged up fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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The 61 positions, based on Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, are entirely tech-related. Most of these were located at the Support Center on Utah Avenue South, and will start up June 20 with all 61 out by August 28. These cuts seem directly connected to the cuts announced back in April, and more cuts were expected to arrive in May back then.
Positions terminated included systems administrators, cybersecurity analysts, scrum masters, systems analysts, technical product managers, and architects. Positions removed went all the way up to director and manager levels. Though Starbucks also noted that none of the job losses were connected to either outsourcing or relocation, which suggests these jobs were not among those being routed to Nashville.
Bearista Comeback?
Meanwhile, new reports suggest that Bearista frenzy may be firing back up, as two new Bearista cold glass cups were recently spotted. The new cups, which are pink, are apparently firing up in South Korea, which is prompting some to wonder when, or even if, the cups will come around to the United States, or anywhere else.
The latest word suggests that that will not happen, though that could change later on. The green Bearista did go into wide release and was extremely popular. So this suggests that a similar fate could hit for the pink version. Though for some, this is actually good news, as the first Bearista proved remarkably popular. One comment noted, “Can’t wait for the fighting video on TikTok.”
Is Starbucks Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SBUX stock based on 16 Buys, 12 Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 23.16% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SBUX price target of $109.92 per share implies 2.58% upside potential.
