After the bell on Thursday, Starbucks landed squarely on the trader radar after the company reported earnings that met expectations but revenue that was slightly lowerer than expected.
Over the past 3 months shares have rallied about 20% as investors made bullish bets as CEO Howard Schultz implemented new strategies to drive growth such as the acquisition of Teevana.
However, with shares moving sharply higher and revenue now coming in light - although it was just shy of expectations - what should you do with this stock?
Trader Keith McCullough, CEO of Hedgeye Risk Management, thinks the Starbucks story is a long-term story and he isn't concerned by the revenue numbers.
McCullough also isn't bothered by the valuation. Starbucks trades for approximately 28 times earnings.
"This is a growth stock," he said. I think it deserves to be expensive – on a pullback I'd buy on weakness," McCullough said.
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Trader Tim Seymour, founder of EmergingMoney.com, shared the enthusiasm. "Coffee prices are down 40% year over year – that's a tailwind for Starbucks," he said. "And they have a long runway internationally – I see Starbucks as a solid play on EM."
Looking at results a little more closely, the coffee chain reported reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of 57 cents per share on revenue of $3.8 billion.
Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 57 cents a share on $3.84 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Same-store sales growth rose 6 percent in the quarter.
Trader disclosure: On January 24,2013, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to bementioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "FastMoney" traders; Jon Najarian is long RIMM CALLS; Jon Najarian is long SBUX; Jon Najarian islong DAL; Jon Najarian is long NVDA CALLS; Jon Najarian is long NVDA CALLS; Jon Najarian is long UAUA CALLS;Jon Najarian is long TPX; Jon Najarian is long SCSS; Karen Finerman is long AAPL, callspreads, put spreads; Karen Finerman is long BAC; Karen Finerman is long JPM;Karen Finerman is long WMT; Karen Finerman is long TGT; Karen Finerman is longMSFT; Karen Finerman is long GOOG; Karen Finerman is long PAY; Karen Finermanis short JCP; Karen Finerman is long PLCE; Karen Finerman is short SPY; KarenFinerman is long SPY Puts; Karen Finerman is short IRT; TimSeymour is long AAPL; Tim Seymour is long BAC; Tim Seymour is long INTC; TimSeymour is long SBUX; Tim Seymour is long MSFT; Tim Seymour is long F; KeithMcCullough is long SBUX
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