Trimming One Position and Closing Another

After you have received this Alert, we're going to trim 200 shares from Starbucks (SBUX) at $54.35 to lock in some of the 9% gain we have and raise cash. We're also going to sell out of the Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) position by selling all 800 shares at $46.56.

As we indicated yesterday, we have too many stocks in the portfolio, and Energy Transfer Partners ranks the poorest, and since the stock is up 9% year to date, we'll take the small gain and move on.

We like Starbucks for the long term, but we are going to take some profits (like we did yesterday with the KeyCorp (KEY) trade), as expectations are high ahead of the company's earnings tonight. Shares are up 18% since it posted its fabulous fourth quarter, and that could set up a sell-the-news move. We believe the 15% earnings guidance is achievable, but we see limited upside, given the heavy investment spending that's going on at the company -- the Verismo launch and additional restructuring in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

We fully expect that Starbucks' growth will accelerate throughout 2013, especially given easier comparisons and lower coffee costs, and as Europe and China stabilize. These are some of the reasons we will hold on to a large position and just trim. We see sustainable double-digit earnings and revenue growth driven by the strong growth trajectory in China and continued store expansion in the U.S., as well as market-share growth from its new consumer, bakery and drink products.

After our trades, we'll own 1,750 shares of SBUX, or 3.27% of the portfolio, and we will be out of ETP.

Regards,

Jim Cramer, Stephanie Link, and TheStreet Research Team

DISCLOSURE: At the time of publication, Action Alerts PLUSwas long ETP and SBUX.

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