Earnings trends are extremely important when evaluating stocks. At Wall St. Cheat Sheet, we view increasing earnings quarter-over-quarter as a simple way to gauge whether costs and the business model are stable. Then we like to analyze whether the company is outperforming peers in the sector. This is what we call the “E-Squared” investment analysis (‘E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter’ + ‘E = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector’).
Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. Click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now!
Here’s your Cheat Sheet to how the top 5 beverage stocks rank via earnings trends:
Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ:SBUX): Current Price $56.81
| Fiscal Year | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
| Revenue ($) in millions | 10,380 | 9,775 | 10,710 | 11,700 | 13,300 |
| Diluted EPS ($) | 0.43 | 0.52 | 1.24 | 1.62 | 1.86 |
Starbucks has been on a tear since 2009, delivering sharply better revenue and EPS performance each year after 2009.
Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data:
| Quarter | Dec. 31, 2011 | Mar. 31, 2012 | Jun. 30, 2012 | Sep. 30, 2012 | Dec. 31, 2011 |
| Revenue ($) in millions | 3,436 | 3,196 | 3,304 | 3,364 | 3,800 |
| Diluted EPS ($) | 0.50 | 0.40 | 0.43 | 0.46 | 0.57 |
Quarterly revenue growth tapered off a bit until this week’s earnings release. Regardless, the company has grown earnings and revenues each of the last three quarters. This is one strong candidate…
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