March 18, 2010
With Valentines Day fast approaching, many retail stores have cleared out Christmas decorations and have set aside a minimum of 2-4 aisles solely dedicated to Valentines Day candy.
Aisles chocked full of Hershey Kisses, Lindt Chocolates, Conversation Hearts, and of course, Dark Chocolate.
We have seen the health features in the news boasting the antioxidant benefits of Dark Chocolate. Psychologists have endorsed the mood elevation benefits. Travel resorts selling romance packages have marketed that their dessert menu's contain many recipes featuring Dark Chocolate to invoke intimacy. Never before has a candy received such rave reviews across the board.
Dark Chocolate has been armed with great public relations and endorsements from the medical community. Does this represent a good sign to add candy makers that feature Dark Chocolate products to your stock portfolio? Absolutely.
One way to select a stock, would be to research the Confectioners and Major-Food Diversified Industry to compare financial reports and returns.
Most confectioner companies like Lindt and Endangered Species Chocolate Company are privately held.
Hershey investors have had a tough fourth quarter, they had a product recall in Canada and sales in general have been falling. Many investors are holding on to their Hershey stock because of their belief in Hershey's brand equity. Aside from Hershey, there are some new mergers and other companies to investigate.
A merger to watch is Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., the worlds largest chewing gum company, and their purchase of A. Korkunov, a chocolate company in Russia, for $300 million. A. Korkunov is the second largest company in the Russia in the premium boxed chocolate category. The market watch shows that shares of Wrigley are already starting to rise.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. (RMCF) since it's inception in November of 1993 has had 5 stock splits and increasing dividends. Rocky Mountain expects to grow it's bottom- line profit between 17% and 22%. Research shows that Rocky Mountain is managing it's cash flow and their dividend obligations well. At under $14.00 a share, it would be an ideal stock to research for a newbie investor.
If you wish to try the approach of casting a larger net to invest in, you can think from the perspective of walking down the aisle in a large store like Walmart (WMT) or Target (TGT).Picture yourself watching all of those shoppers loading up their carts with huge bags of Valentines Day Candy like Snickers, Whoppers, Junior Mints and Chocolate Kisses. From an investment standpoint, it would be a good idea to research retail chains that attract massive foot traffic. Since August of 2005, Walmart stock price has continued to rise with steady dividends.
An investor may also want to research other concept stores with recently upgraded stocks also expecting gains from chocolate candy sales. BJ's Wholesale Club Inc (BJ) known for Costco wholesale outlet, is an amazing company that has spent zero dollars on advertising and has shot it's way to success by word of mouth and offering top of the line products.
For those who give your children a dollar bill and tell them to go into a store and pick out any candy they desire, will not want to pass a 99 Cent Only store (NDN). This chain offers deep discount retail, closeouts and private labels at prices below wholesale. The discount retailer recently announced that their store locations that have been open a minimum of one year have reported revenue growth of 1.9%.
As you can see, there are many ways to locate a stock that can offer a sweet return. You can narrow your selection to a company that produces a tasty treat or widen your target range to investing in a chain that offers incentive to get their shoppers to buy more. By evaluating free cash flow and history of success there are so many choices that can offer a sweet combination.
March 4, 2010
We all know that at some point, we've had enough of these video games. Ranging from Nintendo's Mario Party 761 to Megaman 39, game characters that are just so darn popular that companies are begged, or just want to make more money out of video game product, we can call those 'milking' a video game character. What exactly does this slang term `milking` mean? The meaning of this term is to overuse, or extensively abuse something to get as much out of it as possible, that is what it is to 'milk' a videogame series or character..
1. Mario Games
We all know the spectacular plumber with the mustache! This fictional character, in love with the always kidnapped princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom will never give up, even if it means taking away his 3 lives! Mario is often seen in many 'platformers', where he sets on a battle, stomping all enemies in his path to get back his kidnapped princess from the evil Bowser.
We often see Mario in such games as 'Super Mario Bros.' where we've seen about 4 entries in the series throughout his lifetime, followed by Mario Party, Mario Golf, Mario Hoops, Mario Strikers, Super Mario World, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Mario sunshine, Mario Galaxy, and… and…
You can see what this points towards, right? It shows just how much Nintendo loves it's mascot but not only that, just how much Nintendo is milking the franchise and character, bringing him into so many ridiculous games (i.e. Mario and Sonic at the Olympics), where he participates in sports while still being able to save a princess in his spare time. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could hire such a wonderful plumber to clean our clogged toilets?
2. Megaman
Megaman is the blue bomber. A man or robot, nobody knows, for at least his story is different in each of his games. He saves humanity from robots or saves the world somehow. He first appeared on the Nintendo Entertainement system, in all his pixel glory, just like mario, in 'platformers'.
We`ve seen him in games series like: Megaman, Megaman X, Megaman Battle Network, Megaman Zero, Megaman ZX and Megaman Starforce. He came in two forms of game play: Role Playing Game (RPG) and Platformer. Each series held between 1 and 9 games and still today Megaman games are still being produced much like Mario games although not as successful.
Megaman is considered to be a character who's been milking like a fat cow, for the Battle Network and Starforce series which seem to have gained an identity as the most repetitive game series ever. Note that these two series are possibly the only Megaman RPG series.
3. Sonic
Sonic, the blue hedgehog, with the big red shoes. He's letting go, though, as you can tell by the latest games that have shown just how bad he's gotten. In sonic games, it all starts out with the same evil do-er, Eggman. You beat his bosses, and without further ado, go to the following stage to beat his next boss, in hopes of rescuing and capturing the chaos emeralds.
Sonic has been with us for almost as long as Mario. He's had many, many games on different consoles, and will soon have another game, which will hopefully revive his fame and greatness to a new level. Sonic is considered to be one of the most milked characters because many of his games aren't exactly the best, and the developers always seem to make the same mistakes over, and over, and over again with the games. Nearly all Sonic games are the same, having to simply jam your analog stick towards the right in order to pass levels.
4. The Legend of Zelda main characters
The legend of Zelda has many characters, such as Link; the hero, Zelda; the princess, and Ganondorf; the evil one. In ALL of the Zelda games, these characters re appear in some way or form, but of course, the legend of Zelda is SUPPOSED to be about Zelda, and some blond, point eared boy who has to rescue her for some 'save the world' reason.
The legend of Zelda is just that, it's legend of Zelda, always, but each and every time, it's Link to the rescue. They've been known for their great storylines and graphics at the time of their creation, though, and it's hard to say whether or not Nintendo is really just 'milking' this one, or doing it for the fans.
There are several other characters that could have possibly made this list, but they just didn't seem to fit like these guys did…
