Howard Schultz is leaving Starbucks’ board – analyst’s take

Howard Schultz – the former Chief Executive of Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX) is leaving its board as well, as per a press release on Wednesday.

Analyst Nick Setyan reacts to the news

Schultz stepped down as the head of Starbucks and handed over the reins to Laxman Narasimhan in March. Reacting to his retirement as a director today, Nick Setyan of Wedbush Securities said:

Historically when he has left, Starbucks hasn’t performed very well. So, the question now is, can the new CEO Laxman Narasimhan outperform expectations going forward.

Note that an uptick in China resulted in a 12% growth in Starbucks’ revenue on a year-over-year basis in its latest reported quarter that still fell short of Street estimates.

Shares of the coffee chain lost another 1.0% on today’s news and are now down more than 15% versus their year-to-date high.

Wei Zhang will join the board in his place

Starbucks also confirmed on Wednesday that Wei Zhang will replace Schutlz on its board as he transitions into an honorary title of chairman emeritus.

Zhang has previously held influential roles at notable names including General Electric and Alibaba. On CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime”, Setyan also said today:

One thing that’s being underestimated in Starbucks is the value offering around food. So, I’m actually relatively optimistic that Starbucks will be fine.

Earlier this year, some of Starbucks stores went on strike following accusations that it banned Pride month decor as Invezz reported here. The coffee chain denied the allegations, though.

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