Crains New York - November 12, 2012 - (Page 4)

Marc C. Leavitt, Esq. Attorney at Law IN THE MARKETS by Aaron Elstein Dedicated Client Service Teams Big Bank Products, Small Bank Attention Serving Businesses since 1929 It’s time you switched to Sterling. Call us today to learn more or visit snb.com/stories to read about Marc’s story. newscom snb.com 212-757-1100 Does this storm make me look fat? A fter parking themselves on the couch to watch the Sandy aftermath, people are now going to focus on losing weight. Also, they’ll be consuming more herbal tea and organic food. That, at least, is the considered opinion of the stock market, which last week decided that Weight Watchers International Inc. and Hain Celestial Group Inc. were two of the big winners in the post-Sandy world. Weight Watchers saw its stock price jump last week by 18%, making it the top performer on the Bloomberg/Crain’s index. That rally turned around what had so far been a disappointing year for investors in the New York-based company. The weakness was driven by, ahem, soft attendance at member meetings in the U.S. and United Kingdom. held at business offices. Clocking in at No.2 last week on the Bloomberg/Crain’s index, with a 7% increase in its stock price, was Hain Celestial, the Melville, L.I.based maker of Celestial Seasonings tea, Arrowhead Mills flour and other such stuff. Natural and organic food stocks are hot this year and none more so than Hain,whose shares have soared by 69%. Investor expectations for growth are so high that even the 57% increase in quarterly earnings reported earlier this month fell a bit short of forecasts. In the short term, Hain also figures to get a boost as consumers who lost power after Sandy restock their refrigerators.“I hate what happened out there,” CEO Irwin David Simon said, “but it’s good for business.” The award for making the most compelling case for Hain Celestial, however, goes to the headline writers at the website Motley Fool, who last week published an article titled: “This Company Will Make You Look Better Naked.” Health-trend-conscious investors also have been more attracted this year to such companies as Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc., which during the summer secured government approval to sell an obesity drug. But now the tide may be going Weight Watchers’ way. After all, shortly before Sandy stormed through, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told folks to “just stay hunkered in your home and have a sandwich out of the fridge and sit back and watch television.” That sort of pack-on-thepounds advice figures to drive more traffic to Weight Watchers, which, for what it’s worth, recently kicked off a marketing campaign featuring Jessica Simpson. (“Who, by the way is doing great,” Weight Watchers CEO David Kirchhoff said on a conference call last week.) The company reported an 11% increase in third-quarter earnings last week, and analysts are forecasting better results next year as more Weight Watchers meetings are $13B 4 | Crain’s New York Business | November 12, 2012 THE AMOUNT of profit made by the government from the various lending programs it set up to aid commercial and Wall Street banks during the crisis years of 2007 through 2009, according to a report last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. http://www.snb.com/stories http://www.snb.com http://crainsnewyork.com http://bowlmor.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - November 12, 2012

THE INSIDER
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: HEALTH CARE
THE LIST
CLASSIFIEDS
SMALL BUSINESS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - November 12, 2012