Starbucks reports quarterly profits increased 25 percent

Starbucks says its quarterly profit rose by 25 percent as it benefited from lower coffee costs and stronger sales around the world.

The Seattle-based coffee company says global sales rose 5 percent at established locations. That was slower than the increase in the previous quarter, however, and total sales were shy of Wall Street expectations.

Troy Alstead, the company’s chief financial officer, said in a phone interview that the slower growth for the final three months of the year was the result of the shift toward online shopping during the holiday shopping season, rather than heading out to stores.

Microsoft revenue, earnings top Wall Street expectations

Microsoft Corp. reported revenue and earnings for its fiscal second quarter that topped Wall Street expectations, as the company sold 3.9 million Xbox One consoles to retailers and doubled revenue from its line of Surface tablets from a quarter earlier.

Net income in the quarter through December climbed to $6.56 billion, or 78 cents per share, from $6.38 billion, or 76 cents per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 68 cents per share on revenue of $23.67 billion.

Toyota remains top-selling automaker, beating rival GM

Toyota remained the top-selling automaker for a second year in a row, beating U.S. rival General Motors by some 270,000 vehicles in 2013, and set an ambitious target to sell more than 10 million vehicles this year.

That would mark a milestone as no automaker has ever topped annual worldwide sales of 10 million.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it sold a record 9.98 million vehicles worldwide last year, up 2 percent from the previous year. General Motors Co. sold 9.71 million cars and trucks worldwide last year, outselling Volkswagen AG of Germany at 9.5 million.

Toyota also outlined plans to sell 10.32 million vehicles and produce 10.43 million vehicles in 2014

— From news service reports