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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Kate Middleton Stock Index Outperforms the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Her Royal Highness Princess William, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus is the official name of Catherine 'Kate' Middleton, the wife of Prince William. Ever since their engagement was announced on November 16, 2010, news on the couple, and more specifically Kate, has been constant: what she's wearing, where she's going, what she's doing. The marriage has been a boon to the press, especially the British publications, such as The Times and The Sun, published by News Corporation (NWS) (NWSA).

It is not just the newspapers that are benefiting from all the publicity surrounding Kate. Look what has happened with the clothing retailers whenever Kate buys another dress. Web site hits have skyrocketed and inventory was cleaned out at many dress stores. As a matter of fact, when Kate wore a dress from Reiss to meet President and Mrs. Obama, the company website crashed due to the influx of orders.

Reiss is a privately held company, but there are several publicly companies that have benefited from the 'Kate Effect'. When Kate wore a beige trenchcoat from Burberry (BRBY.L) on her trip to Belfast in March, sales spiked and the trenchcoat sold out. Burberry, which also makes perfume and accessories in addition to clothing, has been around since 1856. The stock is part of the FTSE 100 Index.

Kate has also worn lots of French Connection (FCCN.L) clothing, including tops and dresses. French Connection, also known as FCUK, was founded in 1972 and trades on the London Stock Exchange.

Alexander McQueen dresses designed by Sarah Burton on Kate are a common site. The company is a luxury fashion house founded by designer Alexander McQueen, and is a Subsidiary of PPR (PP.PA), a French holding company that specializing in retail shops and luxury brands. The company was started in 1963 and the stock trades on Euronext Paris and is a part of the CAC 40 index.

Even entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the Royal Wedding through eBay (EBAY). If you do a search on eBay for Kate Middleton, you will find a couple thousand items, everything from magazines to photographs to jewelry to dolls! eBay trades on NASDAQ and trades at 13 times forward earnings. Speaking of entrepreneurs, Kate's parents started their own party supply company, called Party Pieces, back in 1987. Since the wedding news, company sales have grown enormously. Sorry, you can't buy stock in it, it's a private company.

Show business is getting in on the act. Two movies have been made about the wedding. The first was a Lifetime movie called William & Kate. Lifetime is owned by A&E Television Networks, which is owned partially by Disney (DIS). Disney trades at 11.5 times forward earnings and yields 1.6%.

The second movie was William & Catherine: A Royal Romance, which was distributed by the Hallmark Channel. Hallmark is owned by the California based media production company, Crown Media Holdings, Inc. (CRWN). [Crown Media? That's an interesting coincidence.]

Many celebrities have an effect on companies that they are connected with in some way, whether the celebrity is a supermodel, such as Gisele Bunchen, an actress like Angelina Jolie, or just a celebrity for unknown reasons, such as Paris Hilton. Examining all the companies that Kate is connected with, an analysis can be made showing how the Kate stocks compare to stock indexes. If you look at the chart below, you will see the one-year time frame from the date of her engagement announcement. The Kate Index is the blue line on top.

As you can see, the Kate Middleton Stock Index has greatly outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average. During those twelve months, the Kate Index was up 18.1% versus the Dow, which was up only 10.9%.

To see a free list of the stocks in the Kate Middleton Stock Index, which includes some financial information on the companies, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. The list can be downloaded, sorted, and updated.

Disclosure: Author owned DIS and EBAY at the time the article was written.

Copyright-free picture courtesy of Wikipedia. No celebrity endorsement, expressed or implied.

By Fred Fuld III at Stockerblog.com

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Lindsay Lohan To Pose For Playboy Rumor: LiLo Stock Index Up Over 70%

You have to admit, Lindsay Lohan, the famous and occasionally notorious actress and singer, has a knack for getting her name in the news, whether intentionally or not. According to a recent article at OMG!, a source has said that Lohan has signed a contract with Playboy to pose nude for a spread in the magazine. She is reportedly being paid somewhere between $750,000 and $1,000,000.

What is nice about all the publicity that celebrities get is the ability to promote products and services for various companies that they are affiliated with. This includes motion picture distributors of movies that they appear in, products that they promote on television commercials, and even products that you see then use or drive. A perfect example is the Apple (AAPL) iPhone that Lindsay Lohan has been seen using.

When you look at all these companies, a Celebrity Stock Index™ can be compiled and compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500. Stockerblog.com has developed numerous Celebrity Stock Indexes, including Gisele Bunchen, Heidi Klum, and Angelina Jolie. At WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, you can also find free downloadable lists of stocks in celebrity indices including The Beatles and Charlie Sheen.

So lets take a look at Lohan and see what companies she is affiliated with. First, you can no longer invest in Playboy as Hugh Hefner took the company private several months ago.

Lohan starred in The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and the TV show on ABC, Ugly Betty, all distributed by Disney (DIS). She received numerous awards including
Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film Leading Young Actress, MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance, Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout Star. The Disney stock pays a yield of 1.1% and trades at 12 times forward earnings.

She also received several awards for her starring role in Mean Girls, a Paramount Pictures release. Paramount is owned by Viacom (VIA). The stock yields 1.9% and trades at 12.2 times forward earnings.

Lohan also appeared in a couple of movies for News Corporation's (NWS) 20th Century Fox, Just My Luck and Machete. News Corp. pays a yield of 1.1% and has a forward price to earnings ratio of 10.

Lohan has been seen numerous times wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses, produced by Luxottica Group S.p.A. (LUX) and recorded some albums on the Casablanca Records label, which is owned by Vivendi SA (VIV). These include Speak and A Little More Personal.

What is amazing is that is you track all these stocks as an index and compare it to the Dow Jones Industrial Average starting January of 2010, you will discover that the LiLo Index substantially outperforms the Dow. As a matter of fact, the LiLo Index was up 71.8% versus only 16.3% for the Dow during the same time frame. Of course, a lot of the growth of the LiLo was due to Apple more than doubling, but even if you back out Apple, Lindsay Lohan is still up 27.4%. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, you should check out the chart.

There are a few other companies which are part of the Lindsay Lohan Stock Index which can be found at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. To see a free list of all the stocks in the Lindsay Lohan Stock Index, along with financials and the connection to Lohan, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL and DIS. No celebrity endorsement is expressed or implied. No investment recommendations are expressed or implied.

By Stockerblog.com

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Charlie Sheen Stock Index Graph

The above chart shows how the Charlie Sheen Stock Index has performed over the last three years. As you can see, except for a drop at the beginning of 2009, the Index has outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As a matter of fact, the Sheen Index is up 6.2% so far this year versus 4.3% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Since the beginning of 2010, the Sheen Index was up 21.1% versus 15.0% for the Dow, and from the beginning of 2009, Sheen was up an incredible 65.0% versus only 34.7% for the Dow.

The blue line represents Charlie Sheen and the red line represents the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Even during the couple weeks after the February 24 radio broadcast of the Charlie Sheen interview hosted by Alex Jones, the Charlie Sheen Stock Index rose 2.0% versus only 0.8% for the Dow.

Check out the previous article on the Charlie Sheet Stock Index, which describes in detail all the stocks and the connection with Sheen, including such stocks as CBS (CBS), Time Warner (TWX), and News Corporation (NWS) (NWSA). You can also find a free downloadable list of the Sheen stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Assumptions: This is a price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It includes dividends. Both indexes were converted to a starting baseline of 100.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written. No celebrity endorsement is expressed or implied. No investment recommendations are expressed or implied.

By Stockerblog.com

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Cloud Computing Stocks: A Growing Green Sector

You may have heard about cloud computing but never knew what it was, or how it can make businesses more green and cost efficient. Cloud computing means that instead of running software applications on your computer, you run the apps in the "clouds" in cyberspace, in other words through the Internet. All your programs and files are stored on an outsourced computer network residing on remote servers. Sometimes, certain aspects of cloud computing are referred to as platform as a service [PaaS] and software as a service [SaaS]. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has just updated a downloadable Excel database of 16 different publicly traded companies with some connection to cloud computing.

Do you use Yahoo (YHOO) mail or Google's (GOOG) gmail? Then in a small way, you are using cloud computing. In other words, you don't have an email server in your home or office, you're taking advantage of the cloud offered by Yahoo or Google. As a matter of fact, many companies, organizations, and universities have turned their email system over to gmail. If you have ever used Google (GOOG) Docs or Google Calendar, you have experienced another example of cloud computing. Google will be one of the major players in this field. The stock has a PE of 26, is debt free, and has over $24 billion in cash.

Here are a dozen of the economic and green advantages of clouds:
1. Server equipment cost reduction due to elimination of the necessity of on-site servers.
2. Staffing cost savings, since there is little or no need for on-site network administration.
3. Potential for lower software licensing costs.
4. Elimination of server maintenance costs.
5. Small initial upfront investment.
6. Built-in computer disaster recovery services & back-up sites.
7. Reduction in client station costs. In other words, no need to buy new computers for staff as long as existing computers can connect to the Internet.
8. If additional staff computers need to be purchased, they can be cheap 'dumb' terminals.
9. Clouds provide scalability; can easily grow as the company grows.
10. The ease of the sharing of resources.
11. Services can be automated.
12. Speed of access of data.

As for disadvantages, the one major concern is security of the data. So it is a matter of which is more trustworthy, your own company or a company that specialized in data security. Another option is the utilization of cloud computing within a large corporation. Everything stays 'in-house'.

One major company in this currently narrow industry is Salesforce.com (CRM), a provider of customer-relationship management services. They have been promoting 'the end of software'. Salesforce doesn't just market to the small and medium size-companies, they have major users of their services, including Corporate Express division of Staples (SPLS), Daiwa Securities (DSECY.PK), Expedia (EXPE), Dow Jones Newswires subsidiary of News Corp. (NWS-A), SunTrust Banks (STI), and Kaiser Permanente. Salesforce has a very high PE ratio of 117, a small amount of debt amounting to about $18 million, with almost $445 million in cash.

To access a free Excel spreadsheet database of many companies which are involved in cloud computing that can be sorted, added to, and changed, go to wsnn.com.

Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

Monday, February 01, 2010

Wall Street 2 to be Released April 23

Those of you who enjoyed the movie Wall Street, are probably looking forward to seeing the sequel, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, starring: Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf. The movie is being distributed by 20th Century Fox, a subsidiary of News Corp. (NWS) (NWSA).

You can check out the trailer below:

Monday, December 28, 2009

Angelina Jolie Year End Stock Index Update

Angelina Jolie Outperforms the Stock Market

Lots of negative press may appear in the tabloids about Angelina Jolie, but you can't keep a great actress down. Her stock index, which is made up of the stocks of companies that distribute her motion pictures, has significantly outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year. The stocks in her index include the following.

Components of the Angelina Jolie Stock Index:
Sony SNE - Girl, Interrupted
Viacom VIA-B - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life; Beowulf
Time Warner TWX - George Wallace; Taking Lives; Alexander
News Corp. NWS-A - Mr. & Mrs. Smith; Life or Something Like It
General Electric GE - [Universal Pictures] The Bone Collector; The Good Shepherd; The Changeling
Disney DIS - Playing by Heart; Gone in 60 Seconds
Comcast CMCSA - Original Sin
DreamWorks Animation DWA - Shark Tale

Assumptions:
This is a price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It includes dividends.

Returns:
From January through today (12/28/09), the Angelina Jolie Index is up 22%, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average which is up 16%.

If you like celebrity stock indexes, you should check out the Heidi Klum Stock Index, the Eva Longoria Stock Index, the Jessica Alba Stock Index, the Nicole Kidman Stock Index, the Freida Pinto Stock Index, and the Taylor Swift Stock Index.

Author owns TWX, DIS, and DWA.

By Fred Fuld for Stockerblog.com.

Monday, November 09, 2009

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