What's in a Name? Value, at Times

If you have been reading Stockerblog for several months, you have noticed that I have occasionally included stock market stock symbol trivia, in which I ask what you think the company that has a certain stock symbol is, such as TAP, FUEL, CAKE, FACE, XRAY, SEED, PILL, etc.

But is having an interesting name, just that, interesting? Or is it possible that value can be added to the stock by having a great stock symbol? Let's look at one example which is interesting trivia in itself:

For many years, the stock symbol for Harley Davidson (HOG) was HDI. However on August 15, 2006, the company changed its symbol to HOG, which is a term that is closely associated with Harley, and is also the abbreviation for the Harley Owners Group. If we look at the performance of the stock for the five months previous to the symbol change from May 15 to August 15, the stock was up only 14.7%; however for the five months subsequent to the stock symbol change, the stock was up 28.3%, almost double the return.

Disclosure: Author owns HOG.

HOG 1-yr chart