We all know that “woke” is coming under fire these days. Fueled by the return of president-elect Donald Trump, and not exactly helped much by perceived excesses, woke is taking hits in everything from movies to video games. Now, a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) looks to address woke investing directly, and punish it accordingly. And Starbucks (SBUX) is this fund’s first target.
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We cover plenty of ETFs on TipRanks, and have an entire ETF center devoted to the coverage. This fund in particular, which has no name yet, will go live early next year from Azoria Partners. The fund will actively exclude companies that incorporate some element of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into their hiring practices.
Azoria co-founder James Fishback noted that “Americans…do not want to invest in companies running woke science experiments.” Fishback added that “we are representing shareholders here, and human capital hiring quotas – that hurts all shareholders.”
While Starbucks has denied having woke hiring processes—despite Azoria having evidence of policies that featured outright quotas—Starbucks asserted that these were aspirational only, and they had also recently expired and were not put back in place.
Targeting for Value
Starbucks is eager to assert its value in other ways. A recent report revealed that the company is “hitting pause” on price hikes. CEO Brian Niccol said that, “…there’s an opportunity for us to simplify the pricing architecture.” This is particularly true for the app, where he points out that the orders are customizable.
Separately, a review has emerged of the “Starbucks for Life” game for its rewards members, which features chances to win big prizes. These include a $500 gift card to Marriott (MAR) hotels, a $1,000 Delta (DAL) gift card, and more. The game started December 2 and runs through January 5, so there is a lot of potential to win some prizes.
Is Starbucks Stock a Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SBUX stock based on 14 Buys, six Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 5.17% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SBUX price target of $103.52 per share implies 4.16% upside potential.
