4 Top-Performing Stocks For Sports Fans

In a way, investing in the stock market is a lot like rooting for your local sports team. Investors keep a close eye on statistics, devour news about their favorite (executive) teams, and experience an emotional rollercoaster with each big win or loss.

And just as the conversation on sports radio usually reflects the fortunes of the local teams, the way people talk about their favorite brands on Twitter often predicts how the stock of the company that owns that brand will perform in the market.

At LikeFolio, we use social data to help you figure out which stocks are on the rise and which ones are headed for the cellar. By tracking social volume (the number of tweets about a given company) and social sentiment (how positive or negative those tweets are), we can get a clear picture of which companies are pleasing customers — a strong signal that they'll be delivering value to their shareholders in the near future.

With that in mind, here are four companies with products that sports fans love and stocks that investors can't resist.

Nike ($NKE)

Nike's stock has been on a tear this past year, rising a staggering 48% over the last 12 months. And if you take a look at what people are saying about the company on social media, it's easy to see why.

This screenshot from the LikeFolio app shows that the company's social sentiment is now 93% positive — up from 84% a year ago. When almost everyone has good things to say about you, chances are you're doing something right. The company's social volume has been trending upward, as well.

Even better? With its world-class marketing machine (what sports fan doesn't have a favorite Nike ad?) and complete dominance of the sneaker game (as of May, it held 62% of the athletic footwear market), Nike is positioned strongly for continued success in the years to come.

Disney ($DIS)

Though you might not think of Disney as a sports company, diehard fans would be virtually lost without one of its most prized possessions: ESPN.

In fact, the round-the-clock sports network is the crown jewel of Disney's cable portfolio, which accounted for about a third of the company's total revenues this past quarter (Source here).  No wonder Mickey Mouse LOVES sports!

Disney has seen social sentiment and social volume grow significantly over the past year, with the entertainment company finishing this past week as the fifth-most discussed brand on Twitter. Unsurprisingly, the stock price has price has climbed from $86 per share to $119 during the same time period.

With the Marvel Comics and Star Wars brands also under its umbrella, you'd be hard-pressed to find a company with a more passionate customer base.

World Wrestling Entertainment ($WWE)

There's an old saying that "There's no such thing as bad publicity," and there's no better example of this theory than World Wrestling Entertainment's recent performance on the stock market.

Though the company's social sentiment has actually dropped a little bit over the course of the past year, its social volume has more than doubled amid controversial events like the highly unpopular conclusion to last year's Royal Rumble.

Following the stock's May 2014 crash to below the $11 mark, the company has steadily rebounded to reach a price of above $16 – an increase of more than 45%.

While you'd like to think that companies should always strive to make their fans happy, the WWE's recent success shows that, at least on some occasions, controversy can create cash.

Anheuser-Busch InBev ($BUD)

Nothing goes better with watching the game than a nice, cold beer, and there's no beer company more closely associated with American sports than A-B InBev.

The company's brands, which include Bud Light, Budweiser, and Corona, are the official beers of the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The company's social volume is up 145% from a year ago, topping out at nearly 3,000 weekly mentions in January — the same month it released its insanely popular Super Bowl ads.

On the market, A-B InBev is a consistent winner. In fact, its stock chart over the past five years is almost a straight, diagonal line trending upwards.

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Now that you know how many of your favorite sports brands are also big-time players on the market, it's time for you to get off of the sidelines and into the game.

To get started, you can download the LikeFolio app for free to see which Wall St. companies products and brands are performing the best on Main St.

With some thorough research and smart decision-making, it won't be long before you have a few champions in your portfolio.

–  LikeFolio searches all of Twitter for important shifts in consumer behavior around the brands owned by publicly-traded companies.