Coffee giant Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) hasn’t had a great run of things lately, particularly when it comes to labor issues. With more and more locations at least considering becoming union shops, it hasn’t made things any easier. But it’s up nearly 2% in Thursday afternoon’s trading as investors cheered a Supreme Court win that made things at least a little easier…for now.
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Starbucks was faced with a court order to rehire several workers that it fired for being in favor of a union. It challenged this, not surprisingly, and took that challenge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the court threw out an approval of an injunction from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that was placed by a lower court.
That injunction would have required Starbucks to rehire the workers while the NLRB’s administrative case proceeded. Starbucks, meanwhile, argued that the lower court in question should have, but did not, use a “stringent four-factor test” to evaluate the injunction. The impact of this decision is unclear, considering that there are already several suits out against Starbucks as things stand; the NLRB has received “hundreds of complaints” on this front so far.
Pushing for Value
Starbucks has never really been known for good-value products. It’s an upscale chain selling upscale products. But in an era where everyone’s pinching their pennies so hard you can read their dates in people’s thumbprints, Starbucks has little choice but to make accommodations. It’s now offering a $5 combo meal in much the same style as several other fast-food restaurants. Customers can now get a tall hot tea, tall iced tea, or tall coffee to go with a breakfast sandwich or croissant for between $5 and $6.
Is Starbucks Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SBUX stock based on seven Buys and 18 Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 18.02% loss in its share price over the past year, the average SBUX price target of $88.27 per share implies 9.26% upside potential.
