Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Stressed Out? Eat Chocolate, Consider Chocolate Stocks

Chocolate can provide many heath benefits including reducing wrinkles, keeping you slim, and reducing the risk of heart failure in women.
Now according to a research study by the Swinburne University, in Melbourne, Australia which will be published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, dark chocolate can calm you down. The study showed that the cocoa polyphenols in chocolate significantly increased the calmness and contentedness relative to placebo of the participants. So now is chocolate the new health food?
Chocolate may provide calmness to your portfolio in addition to your mood. There are over a dozen chocolate and candy stocks listed at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, with half a dozen paying dividends.
One example is Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (RMCF), based in Durango, Colorado, which makes and markets creams, mints, and truffles. The company, founded in 1981, has over 300 franchise locations in 40 states, plus Canada and the United Arab Emirates. The stock trades at 29 times trailing earnings and 14 times forward earnings. The company provides a tasty yield to its shareholders of 3.6%. For the latest reported quarter, total revenues increased 4.3%.
Of course, there are the ever popular Hershey Bars. Hershey (HSY) is the famous chocolate company, founded in 1894. It is the largest manufacturer of chocolate in North America and one of the largest chocolate and candy companies in the world. It is famous for its Hershey's Kisses which were invented in 1901 and the chocolate chips that were released in 1928. The stock has trailing price to earnings ratio of 32, and a forward PE of 23. The yield is a decent 1.9%. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 5.4% on a 11.7% boost in revenues.
Another large chocolate producer is Nestle (NSRGY), which sports a trailing PE of 20 and a forward P/E of 17. This Swiss chocolate manufacturer was founded in 1867. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 14.8% on a 12.8% rise in revenues.
If you want to see a free list of the publicly traded chocolate and candy stocks, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. The list, which includes several companies that pay dividends, can be downloaded, updated, and sorted.
Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.
By Stockerblog.com







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