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By ASHLEY M. HEHER
The Associated Press

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CHICAGO - More people are visiting Starbucks Corp. coffee shops this year than last, and they're spending more money when they do, an executive said Thursday.

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AP

Pedestrians walk by a Starbucks coffee shop in Somerville, Mass. Starbucks released quarterly earnings at the close of the markets Thursday.

But it was the company's cost-cutting that boosted its profit in its fiscal fourth quarter. Starbucks had fewer stores this year than last and its revenue fell slightly.

Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead said the average amount customers spent in each visit to Starbucks rose in the period. And he said sales at shops open at least a year recovered from the third quarter and from last year.

"We are seeing consumers coming in and spending and we're seeing the improvement across all parts of our day," he told The Associated Press.

"We're very encouraged by what we saw in the second half of the (fiscal) year. It gives us some encouragement for the quarter coming up."

Starbucks expects its sales to rise next fiscal year. It says its sales in stores open at least a year, considered a key restaurant and retail measure, also will rise after two years of declines. The company plans to open about 300 new locations, about one-third in the United States.

But the past year has been hard: The company cut costs, laid off workers and reinvented much of the food sold in its shops. It shut roughly 800 locations and tweaked prices for some drinks.

"There's no one at Starbucks doing a victory lap," CEO Howard Schultz said during a conference call with investors.

The gourmet coffee chain earned $150 million, or 20 cents per share, in the three-month period that ended in late September. Excluding one-time items, that amounted to 24 cents per share. Last year, it earned $5.4 million, or a penny per share.

But the Seattle company's revenue dipped almost four per cent to $2.42 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters predicted a profit of 21 cents per share on revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter. Those estimates typically exclude one-time items.

For the full year, Starbucks earned $390.8 million, or 52 cents per share. That's up nearly 24 per cent from last year. Revenue for the year slipped six per cent to $9.77 billion.

Starbucks shares climbed $1, or 5.1 per cent, to $20.70 in after-hours trading Thursday after closing at $19.70.