Sowing More Growth

Editor's Note: This column was originally published as an alert to subscribers to Stocks Under $10 on Dec. 28.

As Americans take more notice of their diets, corporate marketing departments are trying to meet their needs. In the past 18 to 24 months, fast-food restaurants like McDonald's (MCD Quote) have jump-started sales growth by introducing gourmet salads to their otherwise high-calorie menus. Privately held sandwich shop Subway has also seen its popularity boom, with ads proclaiming dramatic weight loss achieved by customers eating its low-fat hoagies.

After some research, we believe the healthy-foods name to own in the Under $10 space is Wild Oats (OATS Quote), and we added 400 shares at around $8.50.

The natural foods retailer is third only to Whole Foods Market(WFMI Quote) and privately owned Trader Joe's in domestic sales. Even though these stores account for less than 10% of all U.S. grocery sales, Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, said in a Dec. 3 MSNBC.com article that natural foods revenue can more than double from an expected $15 billion in 2005 to $32 billion by 2009. ...