Sorry Fido, It Could be Another Lean Christmas

Tickerspy’s Pet and Veterinary Index

PET AND VETERINARY INVESTING IDEAS

• Popular long ideas: PETS, PETM, PDCO
• Popular short ideas: PETS, PETM
• Top dividend plays: PETS, PDCO, PETM
• Pro favorites: PETM, MWIV, WOOF

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PET AND VETERINARY COVERAGE

This index includes companies with substantial exposures to pet and animal goods and veterinary care

PET AND VETERINARY CHART

PET AND VETERINARY METRICS

Avg. Market Cap:	$3.0B
Avg. P/E Ratio:	26.9
Avg. Div Yield:	1.4%

Petsmart’s (PETM) outlook weighed on the sector on Thursday, but some pet stocks remain up by 20% or more in the last month.

Petsmart shares are dropping by -11% today after yesterday evening’s second-quarter earnings report. The company recorded a profit of $39 million in Q2 or 31 cents a share – two cents ahead of expectations. However, the company guided down on sales for the remainder of 2009 during a conference call, scaring investors away from the stock. Among the unimpressed is Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter, who downgraded the stock to Neutral from Outperform today, citing a weak outlook for Christmas sales of hard goods like collars, leashes, and toys.

As a whole, the Pet and Veterinary Stocks Index is down by -2% today. The Index is up by 5.8% in the last month on a net asset value basis. However, the average performance of individual components is a far more impressive 10% monthly rally.

Animal Health International (AHII) is the sector’s top performer over the last month, up by 30%. The Westlake, Texas-based company sells more than 40,000 products to over 65,000 customers, who range from veterinarians to animal health product retailers.

Minnasota-based Patterson Companies (PDCO) and Idaho’s MWI Veterinary Supply (MWIV) are both up by 20% over the last month. Patterson is jumping by 7% today after the company announced fiscal first-quarter earnings of $45 million or 38 cents per share. The profits were down slightly from the same period last year, but sales rose 6% to $789.6 million during the period. Patterson reaffirmed its fiscal 2010 guidance of EPS between $1.70 and $1.80.

Animal healthcare company VCA Antech (WOOF) is a laggard over the last month, down by -2.4%. Meanwhile, PetMed Express (PETS) is up by 4.6% for the period.

As of this writing, the Pet and Veterinary Stocks Index is one of the 75 cheapest tickerspy Indexes by P/E ratio.

Investors can follow the Pet and Veterinary Stocks Index and view related performance charts and metrics at tickerspy.com.

Tags: AHII, MWIV, PDCO, PETM, PETS, WOOF