Copyright CNBC
We're buying 75 shares of Starbucks at roughly $81. Following Monday's trade, Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust will own 1,150 shares of SBUX, increasing its weighting to about 2.4% from 2.25%. After Starbucks reported last week, we felt a little more confident in CEO Brian Niccol's turnaround strategy. With shares trading back to their "Liberation Day" tariffs lows in early April, we see this recent weakness as an opportunity to slowly scoop up more. Niccol has embarked on an ambitious plan to bring back the coffeehouse atmosphere and fix its stores through a new operating and staffing model called Green Apron Service . It's taken a few quarters, but the turn has finally started. SBUX YTD mountain Starbucks YTD Look no further than same-store sales – the single most important metric when evaluating the health of a retail or restaurant stock. After multiple quarters in a row of declines, same-store sales, or comps, were flat in the July to September quarter. Looking closer, the month-to-month cadence was promising, with comps turning positive in September. Management disclosed that the momentum continued in October after the quarter closed. This positive turn is being driven by more transactions, not higher prices or larger orders. This is a sign that customers are returning to the brand. More broadly, many consumer-focused names — including retailers and restaurants — have been hammered lately on fears of a weakening consumer. Many of them have turned into falling knives – we're also seeing it with Nike , which we nibbled on Friday. Catching a falling knife is not a smart investment strategy, but these two ideas, Starbucks and Nike, are more idiosyncratic opportunities that involve fixing the brand. If Niccol and Nike CEO Elliott Hill get their jobs done right – and we think they will – then the earnings growth for these iconic American brands will follow. NKE YTD mountain Nike YTD (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long SBUX, NKE. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
