Shares of coffee giant Starbucks fell 3 percent in premarket trading Friday after the company announced CEO Howard Schultz is leaving his post.
Effective April 3, President and COO Kevin Johnson will become Starbucks' next chief executive, while Schultz becomes the company's executive chairman, the company said Thursday afternoon. Schultz was originally Starbucks CEO from 1987 to 2000, before returning to the post on Jan. 8, 2008. Starbucks shares skyrocketed 8.05 percent that day.
Starbucks performance with & without Schultz
"As best as we can tell, Mr. Schultz appears to want to focus his energies going forward, and a lot of this focus will still involve Starbucks," Mark Kalinowski, an analyst at Instinet, wrote. "The Starbucks Reserve format could involve 1,000 or more such stores given enough years, and the world — home to only one Starbucks Reserve Roastery right now, in Seattle — could become home to 20-30 of these 'Willy Wonka'-like extravaganzas over time." So far, Starbucks intends to have six Roastery stores open by the end of 2019.
Over the past month, Starbucks stock has surged more than 11 percent, clawing back from a nearly 14 percent year-to-date fall as of early November.
Starbucks shares over past month
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Mark Kalinowski is an analyst at Instinet.