Starbucks sales growth falls short of analyst expectations

Starbucks shares fell more than 5% in after hours trading after the company missed analysts' sales expectations.

Global comparable sales at Starbucks stores rose 6%, but analysts had predicted a 6.7% rise.

Sales in the US, its home market, were up 7%, whereas analysts had expected a 7.4% rise.

Starbucks reported a quarterly profit of $575m (£401m), a 16% rise from $494m it made during the same period last year.

"Starbucks Q2 represented another quarter of solid growth, with the highest revenues of any non-holiday quarter in our history and excellent financial, operating and profit performance," said the company's chief financial officer Scott Maw.

The world's largest coffee chain also fell shy of expectations for its second quarter revenue. It reported $4.99bn in revenue for the quarter and analysts had predicted $5.03bn.

In addition, sales across Asia rose 3% as opposed to 4.6%, and Europe, Middle East and Africa sales rose 1%, not 3.4% as predicted by analysts.

Starbucks increased membership of its loyalty program by 16%, which is seen as a key factor for boosting spending.