Pampering Pet Parents Pumping Up The Stock Market

Lori Ennis
by Lori Ennis
Pet owners have been spending and the numbers don’t lie: pet product stocks have earned twice as much in return when compared to the S & P 500 index market standard!


The Pet Passion index, created by Motif Investing, follows pet-related companies and its gains and losses. In the past year, the index has had a return of 19%, which is well ahead of most of its stock-market peers. In fact, its over twice the average gain by the industry leader S & P 500 Index, which has shown an 8.5% market gain so far this year.


Related: Top 10 Weird Pet Products You Never Knew You Needed


Americans are spending record numbers on their pets, and the market watchers are watching. One of the top companies is PetMed Express, Inc., which has had shares nearly double in value over the last year. Pet insurance company Trupanion Inc., is nearly 44% higher in returns, and vet-diagnostics company IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. has seen its market go up approximately 30%.


American pet parents are expected to spend nearly $70 billion (that’s billion, folks) on their pets this year, which is near $10 billion more than was spent in 2015. Americans seem to be spending more and taking better care of their pets than they do for their own health, with about 90% of money spent in 2017 being on food, supplies and vet care for their pets.

More, the Millenials are holding off building their human families as they at the same time bring furry additions on whom they spend much money, and this has led stock watchers to sniff out the best pet product stocks! With a stronger economy than has been seen in recent years, veterinarians say that office visits for pets have increased, as have treatments that often time may not have been pursued due to expense.


Millenials are also more prone than any other generation to spend money on things that help their furry family members fit in fully with their family and the family dynamics, and that includes many lifestyle accessories that seem to pop up regularly on the market. As people are delaying having children, their pets are their ‘children’ and they happily spend money on them as such.


Related: Target Pairs With BarkBox To Offer Cool Pet Products In-Store


Analysts believe that pet product stocks are great risks for people who are unsure about other markets, as pets and their care are stable markets that have been growing in market share with exponential numbers. While many worry about things like healthcare, tax rates and minimum wage, the desire to give pets the luxuries of human care has not waned. People can relate to pets and the pet product market, according to Craig-Hallum Capital Group analyst Kevin Ellich, and he believes that this market will only continue to grow.


[Source: Bloomberg]

Lori Ennis
Lori Ennis

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