Starbucks Corp., the coffee-shop chain that doubled its number of U.S. stores in four years, will slow expansion as second-quarter earnings tumbled 28 percent and customer visits declined.

“We think it is absolutely the most disciplined and prudent decision to slow the U.S. growth down,” Howard Schultz, who returned as chief executive officer in January, said on a conference call with analysts.

Starbucks plans to pare new U.S. store openings through September by 155 cafes to 1,020. It will add 400 locations in each of the following three years, the Seattle-based company said.

The world’s largest coffee-shop chain will turn instead to Canada, the United Kingdom, China and Japan to boost sales. The “transformation,” as Schultz calls it, comes as cash-strapped U.S. consumers facing record gasoline prices are pulling back on so-called affordable luxuries, including gourmet coffee.

“It’s a difficult task to kind of transition or transform a company” in the best of times, Walter Todd, a principal at Greenwood Capital Associates LLC in Greenwood, S.C., said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Clearly the growth opportunities for companies like Starbucks are in these more emerging markets.” Greenwood sold its Starbucks shares late last year.

Starbucks said it still plans to open 975 stores outside the U.S. through September. U.S. locations made up 11,434 of the company’s 16,226 stores as of March 30.

Net income dropped to $108.7 million, or 15 cents a share, Starbucks said Wednesday, matching the preliminary amount it offered last week. Sales in the three months through March 30 climbed 12 percent to $2.53 billion on higher revenue from company-owned stores.

Starbucks rose 42 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $16.65 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading yesterday. The stock has declined 9.4 percent since Schultz replaced James Donald.

The Seattle-based company surprised investors last week by saying annual profit probably will fall as consumers curtail spending on non-necessities.

“The things that are higher-priced are going to suffer,” in this weak economy, Edward Wedbush, chief executive of Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said Wednesday in a Bloomberg Radio interview.

U.S. sales in Starbucks stores open at least 13 months declined by a “mid-single digit” on a percentage basis, driven by fewer customer visits for the third straight quarter, the company said.

Starbucks reiterated that it expects annual profit to fall from 87 cents a share a year earlier.