Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson speaks at the 2017 GeekWire Summit. (Photo by Dan DeLong for GeekWire)

Shares of Starbucks were down 6 percent Thursday after the coffee giant missed on earnings expectations for its fourth quarter.

Starbucks holiday cup
The Starbucks 2017 holiday cup is now out in the wild. (Starbucks Photo)

The company posted $5.7 billion in revenue, which was flat from the year prior and missed analyst expectations of $5.8 billion. Its non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.55 met expectations and was up 10 percent from the year-ago quarter.

Mobile Order and Pay, a feature that lets customers order with their smartphone via Starbucks’ app and skip the line, accounted for 10 percent of transactions. That’s up from 9 percent in the previous quarter, and 6 percent in the year-ago quarter.

On the earnings call, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said that the company will soon open Mobile Order and Pay to all customers — currently, it is only available to Starbucks Rewards members.

Johnson also said that customer satisfaction scores from Mobile Order and Pay reached record highs last quarter. The growth of Mobile Order and Pay caused congestion issues inside stores for customers trying to pick up their coffee and food. Starbucks responded earlier this year by adding dedicated stations for mobile order-ahead customers, distinct from existing in-store registers, and giving baristas new tablets.

Starbucks did not provide data on payments made via mobile; it previously reported this number. Mobile payments accounted for 30 percent of transactions in U.S. stores during the company’s third quarter, which was up from 29 percent in the previous quarter and 27 percent in Q1.

Starbucks’ Rewards program grew by 11 percent from last year; there are now 13.3 million active members in the U.S. that account for 36 percent of U.S. company-operated store sales. However, membership has remained stagnant at 13.3 million since April, when Starbucks reported its Q2 earnings. That’s also when Starbucks tweaked the program to reward customers based on money they spend rather than how often they visit.

Starbucks also announced that it sold its Tazo tea brand to Unilever for $384 million to help it focus on its Teavana brand.

Shares of Starbucks have remained flat over the past year.

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