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Is Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) overvalued or undervalued?

Updated Nov 10, 2026 · hand-researched model · educational, not advice

Fair value
$50.45
Market price
$109.44
Downside to fair value
53.9%
Verdict
117% above fair value

Test the assumptions — move the discount rate

The DCF value below is a real engine result at each WACC (not a re-estimate). Drag to see how sensitive SBUX's DCF is to the discount rate.

Market price: $109.44

At a recent price of $109.44, Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) trades 117% above TickerWorth's blended fair value of $50.45 per share — a discounted-cash-flow model cross-checked against peer multiples and asset value — meaning the market currently prices SBUX overvalued vs our estimate of what the business is intrinsically worth. Our fair value sits below the market, an implied -53.9% move to close the gap if the business performs in line with our assumptions. This is an educational model, not a price target or a recommendation — the value moves with the inputs, which you can test yourself using the WACC slider below.

One of the lenses behind that blended figure is a discounted-cash-flow model, which on its own values SBUX at about $41.30 per share. The rest of this page walks through that DCF — its assumptions, reverse-DCF and discount-rate sensitivity — because it is the auditable anchor of the blend.

The valuation discounts Starbucks Corporation's projected free cash flows at a weighted-average cost of capital (WACC) of 9.5%, with a long-run terminal growth rate of 2.5%. About 75% of the enterprise value comes from the terminal value — the portion beyond the explicit forecast window — which is typical for a stable, cash-generative business and a reminder that small changes in the discount rate or terminal growth assumption swing the intrinsic value meaningfully.

Running the DCF in reverse — solving for the growth the current price already assumes — the market is implying roughly 20.1% annual revenue growth for SBUX. Our base case instead compounds to about 3.1% a year over the same forecast, so the market is pricing in materially faster growth than our base case. The reverse-DCF is a quick sanity check: it reframes 'is this stock cheap?' as 'do I believe the growth the price requires?' rather than arguing over a single point estimate of fair value.

Sensitivity matters more than any single number. Across a reasonable band of discount-rate assumptions, SBUX's modeled DCF value ranges from about $28.92 to $67.40 per share. If that range still sits below today's price, the market is optimistic relative to the model across the whole band; if it brackets the price, the stock is roughly fairly valued on our assumptions. Use the interactive slider to see exactly where your own cost-of-capital view lands.

How to read this page: the DCF fair value is what Starbucks Corporation would be worth if its cash flows grow as modeled and are discounted at the stated WACC. The assumptions table shows every input and its source; the reverse-DCF shows what the market believes; the sensitivity band shows how fragile the answer is. None of this is investment advice — it is a transparent, auditable framework for forming your own view of SBUX's intrinsic value. Figures update as new filings and prices come in.

The assumptions behind SBUX's DCF

InputValueSource
Base-year revenue$37,184,400,000Starbucks FY2025 10-K (accession 0000829224-25-000114, filed 2025-11-14): Total net revenues for the 52 weeks ended 2025-09-28: $37,184.4M (+2.8% vs FY2024 $36,176.2M; FY2023 $35,975.6M). Segments: North America $27,373.1M, International $7,819.9M, Channel Development $1,871.7M, Corporate and Other $119.7M. Geographic note: U.S. $27,124.7M, CHINA $3,160.8M, other countries $6,898.9M. THE CHINA LINE IS WHY THIS BASE IS NOT THE GO-FORWARD COMPANY: Starbucks sold 60% of its China retail operations to Boyu Capital (closed 2026-04-02), so ~$3.2B of company-operated revenue leaves the consolidated top line and is replaced by licence royalties and product sales ($53M in Q3 FY2026). The base is kept AS REPORTED (the latest completed fiscal year with a filed 10-K) and the deconsolidation is carried in the Year-1 and Year-2 growth rates, not hidden by a pro-forma restatement. CROSS-CHECK: Q1-Q3 FY2026 revenue $28,769.3M, +4.2% on the same period of FY2025 ($27,615.4M); ex-China, the three quarters grew ~7%. FY2026 closed on 2026-09-27; its 10-K is not yet filed.
Base EBIT margin7.9%Starbucks FY2025 10-K (accession 0000829224-25-000114, filed 2025-11-14): GAAP operating income $2,936.6M / revenue $37,184.4M = 7.90% (FY2024 15.0%, FY2023 16.3%). A TROUGH YEAR, and the base is not the forecast: FY2025 carries $892.0M of restructuring and impairments (the first 'Back to Starbucks' store closures and ~900 support-role cuts), offset by a $145.2M litigation-settlement credit. Starbucks' own non-GAAP margin was 9.9% (Q4/FY2025 release, accession 0000829224-25-000074). Operating income INCLUDES income from equity investees ($247.8M) — the North American Coffee Partnership and, from April 2026, Starbucks' 40% share of the China joint venture — which is why the retained China stake is not added to the net-debt bridge. RENT STAYS IN EBIT: operating-lease cost sits inside store operating expenses, so operating leases are kept out of debt (see market.net_debt). CROSS-CHECK: Q1-Q3 FY2026 GAAP margin 9.4% ($2,699.3M / $28,769.3M) after $415.8M of restructuring; non-GAAP 11.2%.
Forecast revenue growth2% → 0% → 4% → 4% → 4%Assumption — TickerWorth's 5-year explicit forecast
Risk-free rate5.2%US 10Y Treasury constant maturity (FRED DGS10): 5.24% on 2026-10-01, the latest published observation. Shared by every model in this tracker.
Beta0.96Yahoo Finance 5Y-monthly beta via yfinance: Published 5Y-monthly beta 0.965, read 2026-10-03 via yfinance, used AS PUBLISHED. No normalization: it is close to 1, a Blume adjustment would move it only to 0.98 (~-$0.4/share), and nothing in the window obviously distorts it the way McDonald's stock-specific slide distorts its 0.41. Gives a cost of equity of 10.07%. This is the input that most separates the model from the market — the price is only reached on a beta near 0.17 with everything else fixed (see explainer); each 0.1 of beta is worth roughly $3-4/share.
Terminal growth2.5%Assumption — house default: House default 2.5% (roughly long-run nominal GDP), kept for comparability. Not obviously generous or punitive here: management talks of a 'long runway' of new coffeehouses and the China JV aspires to 20,000 stores (from ~8,000), but that growth now accrues mostly to licensees and to a 40% equity stake, and North American unit growth has just been cut. 3.0% adds ~$3/share; 2.0% takes ~$2.7 off. Must remain < WACC of 9.47%.
Diluted shares1,144MStarbucks Q3 FY2026 10-Q (accession 0000829224-26-000130, filed 2026-07-29): Q3 FY2026 weighted-average diluted shares 1,143.8M (Q1-Q3 1,143.0M; FY2025 1,139.8M); 1,139.8M outstanding at 2026-06-28. The count is FLAT TO RISING: Starbucks suspended buybacks during the turnaround (no repurchases in Q1-Q3 FY2026) while issuing to employees (SBC $290.4M year to date).
Market price$109.44Delayed quote · as of 2026-11-10 05:21 UTC

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TickerWorth is an educational DCF tool, not a licensed investment adviser. Figures are estimates derived from public filings and market data and can be wrong.