Starbucks: Never Going Back Again

Shares of Starbucks ( SBUX ) are tumbling today after the coffee purveyor met earnings forecasts but missed on sales and cut its full-year guidance. Starbucks reported a profit of 45 cents a share, in line with analyst estimates, on sales of $5.3 billion, below the Street consensus for $5.4 billion. Starbucks also said it would earn between $2.08 a share and $2.12 a share, down from a previous range of $2.12 to $2.14. Same store sales rose just 3% , but the company sees them rising back into the mid-single digit range. But there might be no going back. Buckingham's John Zolidis , for instance, contends Starbucks is "unlikely to be a mid-single-digit comp business going forward." He explains why: