Have you bought your Halloween candy yet for the trick-or-treaters? If not, you better get going, so that you can support the candy companies. Other industries can also benefit from Halloween stocks.
Of course, the biggest beneficiaries of Halloween are the producers of sweets. Hershey Foods (HSY) is one of the largest chocolate and confectionery companies in the world, known for its Hershey Kisses and Hershey Bars. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 21, and a yield of 2.3%.
Tootsie Roll Industries (TR) has various candy brands for trick-or-treaters including Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Roll Pops, Caramel Apple Pops, Charms, Blow-Pops, Blue Razz, Zip-A-Dee Pops, Cella’s, Mason Dots, Mason Crows, Junior Mint, Charleston Chew, Sugar Daddys, and Sugar Babies. The stock has a P/E of 35 and a yield of 0.9%.
Watching scary movies is another popular event on Halloween. Netflix (NFLX), the huge provider of videos in the US, has an extensive selection of scary movies in its collection of titles. The stock trades as 114 times forward earnings. It does not pay a dividend.
A major producer of scary movies is Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF.A), which has made such films as American Psycho, Ginger Snaps, Route 666, The Devil’s Rejects, House of the Dead 2, Saw VI, See No Evil, Hostel: Part II, My Bloody Valentine 3D and many others. Lionsgate has a price to earnings ratio of 34.
Hopefully, your Halloween stocks become treats and not tricks.
Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.