Recently, Nutrisystem’s (NASDAQ:NTRI) stock jumped 8.5% during after-hours trading when the diet services and weight management products manufacturer posted fourth quarter profits that were better than expected. The company reported on Monday that its profits for the fourth quarter increased to $5.31 million. This amounts to 18 cents a share, which is a dramatic improvement from its quarterly performance of $1.3 million or 4 cents a share from the previous year. In terms of sales, total sales revenue increased from $69.9 million to $79.2 million. Analysts were completely blown away by this performance, since the analysts’ consensus was around 16 cents a share based on total revenues of $80.4 million.
Nutrisystem’s recent quarterly report highlights the existence of a lucrative niche: diet stocks. If you’re looking to find stocks to invest in in an otherwise overvalued and overheated market, you may want to consider companies that produce diet products or offer weight management services. Why? The weight-loss industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. The best part is that most people fail in their diets. Most Americans will try one diet after the other and even after they fail, they will continue to pour millions of dollars into a new set of products. It’s a never-ending cycle.
If you’re looking for an evergreen or perpetual industry with never-ending demand, try the diet industry. Unless a breakthrough diet product that produces permanent results enters the market, it’s likely that the diet market will continue to be a multi-billion dollar market that renews itself every single year.