Starbucks (SBUX 1.38%) stock has likely minted its share of millionaires, but not with its recent performance. The coffee shop giant has had some major struggles over the past five years, and its stock trails the market's 109% gain with its own 37%.

That's incredibly demoralizing for shareholders who have held on with the hopes of seeing a return to past performance levels. Fortunately, that improvement might be just around the corner.

Image source: Starbucks.

Coffee lovers are out again

Starbucks has cycled through several CEOs over the past few years, ever since sales began sinking during the pandemic. It has landed on well-respected CEO Brian Niccol, and he's in the process of effecting a potential turnaround. He seems super upbeat about Starbucks' prospects and recently gave a confidence-boosting assessment of how the company is doing in the most recent earnings report. For example, in test locations with a new order sequencing algorithm, average wait times fell by two minutes, bringing 75% of orders at peak times to under four minutes.

That coincides with improvements in food services data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Retail and food services sales increased 0.6% in June from the previous month, and 3.9% year over year. That was driven by an overall 6.6% increase in food service and drinking sales year over year.

Niccol did not provide guidance for the 2025 fiscal third quarter (ended June 30) because he felt that there are too many unknowns as he reshapes the company's strategies and processes in a challenging economic environment. Comparable sales were down 1% in the second quarter (ended March 30), and there were major declines in operating margin and earnings per share (EPS) as the company restructures amid economic pressure.

Starbucks reports third-quarter results on July 29. If the company impresses investors with improvements, which seems likely considering the better operating climate, the stock should jump. In the meantime, shareholders are enjoying the growing dividend that yields 2.6% at the current price.