Starbucks Officials Profit On Stock

Starbucks Corp. executives sold 271,150 shares to collect about $7.83 million last month as the stock reached an eight-month high on expectations earnings will rise on its plan to sell coffee at supermarkets.

Chairman Howard Schultz led the sales, with 113,000 shares at $38.875 to $39 each June 23 to raise $4.4 million. He still owns 1.79 million shares. Six senior vice presidents exercised options to buy 80,134 shares at an average price of about $13 a share and then sold the stock on the open market, collecting about $3.43 million from June 3 to June 27.

The sales took place before and just after the stock hit an eight-month high of 39 3/16 June 24, the day Starbucks said it would start selling coffee beans and ground coffee at supermarkets in Chicago, in a plan to capture as much as 20 percent of the $3 billion U.S. grocery-store market for coffee.