Friday, June 27, 2014

Hot Chocolate Stocks

The National Institute of Health and the Mars company, maker of the Mars and Snickers candy bars, are working on a research project to determine if chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Of course, you have heard about the benefits that chocolate can provide for you health, such as reducing wrinkles, keeping you slim, and reducing the risk of heart failure in women.

Unfortunately for the investor, Mars is a private company. However, there are more than twelve chocolate and candy stocks listed at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, with many 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 in excess of 300 franchise locations in most of the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. The stock trades at 19 times trailing earnings. The company provides a delicious yield to its shareholders of 3.5%.

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 produced in 1928. The stock has trailing price to earnings ratio of 26, and a forward PE of 21. The dividend is 1.9%. 

Another large chocolate producer is Nestle (NSRGY), which sports a trailing PE of 22 and a forward P/E of 17. This Swiss chocolate manufacturer was founded in 1867. 

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

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For health benefits, it has to be dark chocolate - it can't be milk chocolate. [On Drs. TV show today.] It has to be at least 70% cocoa. You can check in your local grocery store - almost all the high % dark chocolate is made by private natural foods or European companies. But what the hey ... there's still money to be made: Ignorant consumers will probably buy milk chocolate anyway!

Stockerblog said...

You are definitely right about the chocolate being dark chocolate. As a matter of fact, it is only certain substances in the dark chocolate that have health benefits. I find it interesting that the Mars company, which isn't really known for its dark chocolate, is sponsoring this research study on dark chocolate.