In addition to awaiting quarterly reports from several of the Mag 7 big tech companies next week, Wall Street will be anticipating Starbucks SBUX results for its fiscal second quarter on Tuesday, April 29.

Leading up to its Q2 report, investors are certainly hoping Starbucks stock can continue to rebound, with SBUX still down 10% year to date and 28% from its 52-week high of $117 a share.  

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Starbucks Q2 Preview & Expectations

Notably, Wall Street will be monitoring the effects that higher tariffs will have on Starbucks as the specialty coffee retailer has already been dealing with slower global same-store sales, particularly in China. Starbucks Q2 sales are expected to come in at $8.79 billion, a 2% increase from $8.56 billion in the comparative quarter. Optimistically, Starbucks' international revenue is thought to have risen 5% to $1.84 billion compared to $1.75 billion in the prior period.

That said, Starbucks is expected to see a noticeable decrease on its bottom line with Q2 EPS projections at $0.49 versus $0.68 per share a year ago. Starbucks most recently beat its Q1 EPS expectations by 4% but has posted an average earnings surprise of -2.34% over the last four quarters.

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Starbucks’ Stagnant Price Performance  

Although Starbucks stock has been known to post pleasant gains in the past, it’s noteworthy that SBUX is down 24% in the last two years and is only sitting on +11% gains in the last three years, which has lagged the broader index's returns of more than +30%.

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SBUX Valuation Comparison

What may be catching long-term investors' attention is that Starbucks stock is trading at 28.6X forward earnings, which is on par with its decade-long median and well below the high of 95.8X during this period. Plus, SBUX isn't at an overly stretched premium to the benchmark S&P 500’s 21.2X forward earnings multiple and its Zacks Retail-Restaurants Industry average of 26.2X.

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Conclusion & Final Thoughts

At the moment, Starbucks stock lands a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). While the iconic coffee chain is expected to experience a resurgence in profitability next year, it may be too soon to say it’s time to buy SBUX for an extended rebound.

More meaningful upside will largely depend on Starbucks' being able to reach or exceed its Q2 expectations and, most importantly, offering guidance that starts to reconfirm a return to growth.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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