Valentine's Day Stocks You're Going to Love

It’s Valentine’s Day and unlike that made-up holiday, Sweetest Day, most couples feel the pressure to spend money on each other. A simple, “I love you” just won’t do and that’s why an average of $130.97 is spent by a person celebrating Valentine’s Day. That equates to $18.6 billion in projected sales in 2013, according to a Fox News affiliate.

With those kinds of numbers, companies work hard to get their share of the Valentine’s Day haul. Not only are these Valentine’s stocks looking to cash in on the love gifts, they’ve already rewarded investors and look to continue their trends unless Cupid’s arrow bursts the stock market bubble of late.

American Greetings AM was up 1.5 percent on Wednesday as investors get into the Valentine’s Day spirit. With a 3.7 percent dividend, there’s a lot to love about this stock. Americans purchase 6.5 billion greeting cards each year with 80 percent purchased by women. Seven out of 10 people surveyed consider greeting cards “absolutely” or “almost” essential, according to the Greeting Card Association.

Signet Group SIG is up 37 percent over the past 52 weeks. Since its July lows, the stock has seen a solid and healthy uptrend with buy volume outpacing sell volume on average. Signet operates a network of 1,318 jewelry stores best known as Kay Jewelers and Jared The Galleria of Jewelry. According to Forbes, $2.66 billion is spent on jewelry on Valentine’s Day.

Hershey HSY finished Wednesday with a gain of 0.75 percent and made a new all-time high this week. The stock is up 36 percent in the past year and pays a sweet 2.1 percent dividend. According to the Wall Street Journal, a 10 percent price increase phased in over the last couple of years contributed to a 10 percent rise in sales.

1-800-Flowers FLWS saw gains of 1.2 percent on Wednesday on heavy volume. On February 1, CEO Jim McCann said, “During our second half, we expect to achieve year-over-year growth in revenues, gross margin and contribution margin driven primarily by our core 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Consumer Floral and BloomNet Wire Services businesses.” This helped to propel the stock to a 52 week high.

Brinker International EAT joined the rest of the restaurant sector seeing red but not Valentine’s Red. It was down 3 percent on three times the volume. None the less, the stock is up 18 percent over the past year. Brinker owns Maggiano’s Little Italy and Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurants. Despite recent pressure, the stock moved aggressively to the upside since November and pays a 2.4 percent dividend.

Posted In: Long IdeasNewsWall Street JournalEventsMediaTrading IdeasGeneral1-800-FlowersAmerican GreetingsBrinker InternationalHersheysignet group
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