Sugar Stocks are Sweet

Sugar production actually started in India in ancient times, where sugarcane
juice was turned into granulated crystals. Honey was obviously used as a
sweetener in other areas of the world back then. Did you know that Christopher
Columbus brought the first sugarcane cuttings to the New World? Now Brazil has
the highest per capita production of sugar in the world. One growing byproduct
of sugar production for food is fuel for energy such as ethanol. Unfortunately,
there are not too many sugar production companies that are publicly traded, but
there are several that use sugar in their candy and chocolate products. Imperial
Sugar Co. (IPSU) is a processor and marketer of refined sugar in several
formats, including granulated, powdered, and liquid. The stock trades on NASDAQ
at seven times forward earnings and pays a yield of 0.7%. Cosan Ltd. (CZZ),
based in Brazil, is one of the largest growers and processors of sugarcane in
the world and the largest ethanol producer in Brazil from sugarcane. This New
York Stock Exchange (NYX) traded company trades at 9.3 times forward earnings
and pays a decent yield of 2%. If you think the price of sugar is going up, but
you don't want to invest in commodities directly, you might want to consider the
iPath Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Total Return Sub-Index Exchange Traded Note (SGG),
which attempts to replicate the Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Total Return Sub-Index. This
ETN, which also trades on the NYSE, has a one year total return of over 25%. The
other alternative is investing in companies that use sugar in their products,
such as The Hershey Company (HSY), Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. (TR), and Rocky
Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. (RMCF). To see a free down-loadable list of all
the candy and chocolate stocks , which can be updated and sorted, go to
WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the
time the article was written. By Stockerblog.com