The accompanying table [click to enlarge] provides statistics for the 37 companies included in the ETF Innovators [ETFI] Global Pet and Animal Care Index, with the Top 25 rated stocks in the index outpacing the overall market and benchmark ETFs such as Market Vectors Agribusiness (MOO), Healthcare Sector SPDR (XLV), and iShares S&P Global Healthcare (IXJ) over the past year.
The index tracks companies which are active in the following business segments: animal breeding, veterinary services, pet retailers, animal feeds/nutrition, and veterinary medicines/diagnostics, such as the following top rated U.S.-listed stocks: Neogen (NEOG), PetMed Express (PETS), Balchem (BCPC), PetSmart (PETM), and Central Garden & Pet (CENT).
The index includes companies with market caps of $50M-$10B, which makes them more leveraged to the pet and animal care industry and also makes them ideal takeover candidates for larger players in animal health such as Pfizer (PFE), Schering-Plough (SGP) (Intervet), Novartis (NVS), Merck (MRK) + Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) joint venture (Merial), Wyeth (WYE) (Fort Dodge), and Eli Lilly (LLY) (Elanco). In addition, favorable trends for the pet and animal care industry include the following:
1.) Pet spending in the U.S. is estimated at $43.4B in 2008, up from $32.4B in 2003
2.) About 63% of U.S. households have a pet, which equals over 71M homes
3.) The worldwide market for animal healthcare, excluding bulk feed and nutrition products, is expected to reach just under $20B in 2008, experiencing growth of 26% from $15.6B in 2003.
$5.71 (01/08/09)
