Health Food Stocks May Make Your Portfolio Healthier

As baby boomers age, they pay closer attention to their health. As a matter of fact, as seniors start to age, their conversations seem to become more and more peppered with medical issues, weight, and food. The connection between the food you eat and your health and wellness continues to become stronger and stronger. Of course, it is not just older Americans that are concerned about their food and beverage consumption; young people are jumping on the bandwagon in droves.

Investors have been benefiting from the marketers healthy food and beverages, with major health food retailers up 100% or more during the last five years. However, during the last three months, these stocks have been underperforming the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, yet since the beginning of January, the health food stocks are starting to turn back up. According to the free list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com of health food stocks, there are over a dozen worth investigating.

One of the major players in this industry is Whole Foods Market (WFM), based in Austin, Texas, which owns a chain of supermarkets specializing in natural and organic products. The stock trades at 38 times trailing earnings and 28 times forward earnings. The earnings for the latest reported quarter were up 49.4% on a 23.6% rise in revenues. The company has $1.22 billion in cash, amounting to $6.58 in cash per share. The company reports earnings on February 13. Whole Foods pays a small dividend with a yield of 0.9%.

Hain Celestial Group (HAIN) is a provider of natural and organic foods and personal care products. The company brands include Celestial Seasonings tea, Soy Dream and Almond Dream beverages, the FreeBird brand of organic free range chickens, and whole grain foods through Arrowhead Mills. The stock has a trailing price to earnings ratio of 32 and forward PE of 20. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 40.2% on a 25.4% boost in sales. The company reports on February 5.

There are plenty of other health food stocks such as REEDS (REED), a distributor of natural non-alcoholic carbonated soft drinks and New Age beverages, and SunOpta (STKL), which processes and packages natural and organic food products. To see all the primary companies involved in the health food industry, check out the list of health food stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written. By Stockerblog.com