In the Journal piece, much is made of revenue and profit growth from 2009, as well as even more recent growth statistics. That's all well and good if you are a prescient market timer. Few investors- even professionals- are successful at that.
What the first chart actually reveals is that Starbucks' performance collapsed much more deeply than the Index during the recent recession. It's pretty clearly become highly correlated with economic activity.
Schultz, in the interview, admits that "we were growing the company with such speed and aggression that we lost sight of the customer experience."
Translation: Starbucks won't be even attempting such levels of growth, apart from riding economic cycles, again.
Over the past five years, owning Starbucks basically got you a return not significantly different from the S&P, but with far more risk.
The second chart provides a larger view of just how volatile the firm's returns have become. Looked at since inception, we see the predictable rocket-like trajectory as the firm grew across the nation, changing coffee consumption habits during some periods of economic growth. But 2005 clearly marked a watershed year.
After that, monotonic share price growth ended. Volatility arrived on an unheard of scale, making the stock a much different type of issue than it had been. Prior price declines were nothing, in retrospect, compared to the cliff off of which the stock price fell for about three years.
Thus, the recent rebounds in fundamentals which have powered a seeming-comeback may mislead investors. Perhaps even Schultz, too.
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