People watch stocks for different reasons -- they're waiting for a dip in price, watching for a specific catalyst, gathering all the news and information that might affect stocks they already own, or considering a sell. Regardless of their motivation, we can better understand market sentiment by seeing who's watching what. With the Fool's free My Watchlist service, we have tens of thousands of people telling us the businesses that have, for whatever reason, piqued their interest.

The most-watched food product stock is ...
Looking at the aggregate data, we see that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR) is above the rest in terms of watch interest, the percentage of people keeping an eye on food product stocks in general who are specifically watching each company. And for good reason. The stock has risen 100% over the past year to an astronomically high price. As CAPS member ebigmac wrote last week:

This company not only sells the leading single cup coffee maker (Keurig) but it distributes most of the K-cup "pucks" that are needed in the Keurig. A sort of supply razor and make money from blades type of model. The price is currently high because of Starbucks agreeing to sell K-cups. However, the moat is large and GMCR will continue to leave the others behind.

Here are the rest of the top 15 most-watched companies in the industry with their watch interest along with the stocks' CAPS rating to show the sentiment of our investing community.

 

Company

Market Cap (millions)

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Watch Interest

1

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

$9,381

*

14.5%

2

Kraft Foods

$55,230

****

12.5%

3

Archer Daniels Midland

$23,593

****

5.6%

4

Kellogg

$19,786

***

4.7%

5

Dean Foods (NYSE: DF)

$1,864

***

4.5%

6

AgFeed Industries (Nasdaq: FEED)

$109

*****

4.1%

7

General Mills

$23,187

****

4.1%

8

H.J. Heinz

$15,801

*****

3.8%

9

McCormick

$6,319

****

3.5%

10

China Marine Food Group (AMEX: CMFO)

$105

***

3.4%

11

Darling International (NYSE: DAR)

$1,873

*****

2.5%

12

ConAgra Foods

$9,740

*****

2.2%

13

 J.M. Smucker

$8,479

****

2.1%

14

Smart Balance (Nasdaq: SMBL)

$268

****

1.9%

15

Zhongpin (Nasdaq: HOGS)

$614

****

1.7%

Source: Motley Fool, Motley Fool CAPS.

Whether you're keeping an eye on the industry stalwarts such as Kraft or are watching an up-and-comer such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, it pays to watch. We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service. Click here to start now.