Starbucks Annual Meeting Gives Shultz Plenty to Crow About

Starbucks (SBUX) has a press release out crediting "the success of its transformation agenda and the hard work of its partners (employees) for delivering strong financial results," which fails specifically to acknowledge the contribution of those partners who don't work there anymore. CEO Howard Shultz is later quoted lauding how they cut "nearly $600 million of costs out of the company."

Soylent Green reference: "The costs are people!"

Eliminating thousands of positions, closing under-performing stores, and halting new construction resulted in Starbucks making its highest quarterly earnings in its 39-year history in Q1 of 2010. The company projects "free cash flow" of $1 billion for the year. That's the kind of news that gets you a mini-Sheryl Crow concert to close an annual meeting.

The company is rewarding investors with a ten-cent/share dividend, following a trend--Standard & Poor's says companies have increased dividends by $4.7 billion this year. Companies are sitting on "tons of cash." Jon Talton worries the days of the sober investor's steady dividend may be behind us, but he still thinks the Starbucks dividend augurs good things.

There is still an area of waste that Starbucks hasn't fully cut back on--the 10 million paper and plastic cups it goes through per day. The As You Sow Foundation talked socially responsible shareholder John Harrington into filing a shareholder proposal to prompt more aggressive recycling. The yes votes amounted to 11 percent. Not insubstantial, but perhaps the rest of the shareholders are worried about recycling eating into that ten cents.