Google Trends Could Substitute As Herbalife Channel Checks

Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is a difficult company for analysts to investigate (in the sense of channel checks, not legality) because it is so decentralized. Even if one segment of Herbalife distributors are seeing declining sales there could easily be another group outperforming and making up for the loss. The company releases its own numbers periodically, but independent verification and real-time tracking pose a difficult problem.

Google Trends: Best tools available

D.A. Davidson & Co. analyst Timothy S. Ramey says that “Google Trends may be one of the best tools available – tracking interest over time as represented by number of...