Jim Cramer has bold new message for Starbucks investors

Most people buy stocks the way they buy umbrellas. They want one when it is already raining and forget it the moment the sun comes out.

The crowd chases what is hot and runs from what is cold, which is usually the opposite of what builds wealth over time.

For about two years, one of America's most familiar brands sat firmly in the cold pile. Customers griped about long waits and steep prices. Same-store sales kept shrinking.

A new chief executive arrived from Chipotle (CMG) promising a fix that would take time, and Wall Street treated the stock like a patient nobody wanted to visit.

The skeptics had a case. Coffee is a small luxury, and when shoppers feel squeezed, a six-dollar latte is an easy thing to cut. Investors who had ridden the name for years started to wonder whether the magic was gone for good.

Then one of the loudest voices on Wall Street decided he was finished waiting. "Just go buy Starbucks already," Jim Cramer wrote on X on Thursday, May 28.

The five-word post from the "Mad Money" host was not subtle. It was a flat order to stop overthinking a stock he has held for years and start buying it.

Photo by SOPA Images on Getty Images

What Cramer's Starbucks call means for your money

When I read that post, what struck me was the absence of hedging. Cramer usually wraps a buy call in caveats. This time, there were none.

Cramer has reason to trust the man running the company. Brian Niccol turned around Chipotle after a food-safety crisis gutted the stock, and Cramer has pointed to that track record for months as a reason to stay patient rather than sell.

More Restaurants

• 30 year old restaurant has closed all restaurants
• After bankruptcy, Hooters closes restaurants, fights for survival
• Iconic Las Vegas Strip restaurant closes without warning

That matters because Starbucks (SBUX) is not some obscure ticker. It is one of the most widely held consumer stocks in America, tucked inside countless index funds, 401(k) plans, and retirement accounts.

When a high-profile bull stops qualifying his enthusiasm, the people who own the stock without realizing it have a reason to pay attention.

Cramer is not talking about this stock from the outside. His Charitable Trust counts the coffee chain among its holdings, according to CNBC, and he has spent recent months telling viewers the turnaround was real but slow.

The shift in tone, from be patient to just buy it, is the actual news here.

For a reader, the translation is simple. If you already own Starbucks, one of the market's most quoted voices thinks the worst is behind it. If you do not, the easy money may already be gone.

Related: Starbucks mounts comeback after costly backlash

How the Back to Starbucks turnaround changed the numbers

A loud call means little without numbers behind it. The numbers have finally started cooperating.

The fall was not a mystery. Years of pushing customers toward mobile ordering left stores understaffed and slow, and in China, cheaper rivals such as Luckin flooded the market.

Niccol's fix was almost old-fashioned. He put more workers back behind the counter and bet that faster service, not another app feature, would bring people back.

In its fiscal first quarter, reported in late January, Starbucks said global comparable sales rose 4%, and U.S. transactions grew for the first time in eight quarters. Revenue climbed 6% to $9.9 billion. "We believe we're ahead of schedule," chief executive Brian Niccol said in a company statement.

The momentum did not fade. When I pulled the company's two most recent earnings releases, the trend was hard to argue with. In the fiscal second quarter, comparable sales jumped 6.2% and revenue rose 9% to $9.5 billion, and management raised its full-year guidance, according to a securities filing.

The company also cleaned up its biggest overhang. Starbucks agreed to sell a 60% stake in its China business to Boyu Capital at a $4 billion enterprise value, reported Bloomberg, and the joint venture closed in April. Starbucks values the full China operation at more than $13 billion once its retained stake and future licensing fees are counted.

Here is the timeline that turned the story around:

• Late 2024: Brian Niccol leaves Chipotle to become Starbucks chairman and chief executive and launches the Back to Starbucks plan.
• Fiscal first quarter 2026: Global comparable sales rise 4% and U.S. transactions grow for the first time in eight quarters, according to a company statement.
• Nov. 3, 2025: Starbucks agrees to sell a 60% stake in its China business to Boyu Capital at a $4 billion enterprise value, reported Bloomberg.
• Fiscal second quarter 2026: Comparable sales jump 6.2% and management raises full-year guidance, according to a securities filing.

The stock has noticed. Starbucks traded near $102 in late May, up about 20% so far in 2026 and near the upper end of its 52-week range. Wall Street's consensus leans toward a moderate buy, with an average price target only a few dollars above the current quote.

What patient Starbucks investors should watch next

The blunt call comes with a catch. At roughly 43 times forward earnings, Starbucks is priced like a company that has already won, even though the turnaround is maybe halfway done. Margins are still healing, and the average analyst sees only single-digit upside from here.

Owners are at least paid to wait. The company still sends out a quarterly dividend yielding roughly 2.5%, which softens the sting if the recovery takes another year to fully show up.

So the question for anyone weighing Cramer's order is not whether the brand is back. It is whether the daily habit is back.

The metric that broke first was transactions, the simple count of people walking in and buying something. That number is now growing again, and it is the one I would watch above the share price. A faster-moving line at your local store is the same data point that is moving the stock.

That is the quiet payoff inside a five-word post. Cramer is not betting on a logo or a latte. He is betting that millions of small, boring, repeated purchases have started climbing again, and that the market has not fully priced what happens if they keep climbing into 2027.

Related: Starbucks investors get tough-luck news on AI inventory bet

The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.

This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 8:17 AM.