Stacy Conradt
The Quick: 10 Companies That Had Fun with their Stock Ticker Symbols
by Stacy Conradt - September 30, 2010 - 4:41 PM

q10

I don’t know that there’s much room for humor in the world of finance, especially when it comes to fast-paced buying and selling. But a few companies have found a little room for humor or at least cleverness – check out these 10 that decided to have a smidge of fun with their ticker symbols.

1. HOG: Harley Davidson.
2. BUD: Anheuser Busch, which sells Budweiser products, of course.
3. ZZ: Sealy, a mattress company.
4. TAP: Molson, a Canadian beer company.
5. FUN: Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, which owns 11 major amusement parks in North America (Valleyfair, Worlds of Fun, Knott’s Berry Farm and King’s Dominion among them).
6. LVB: Steinway Musical Company. It stands for Ludwig Von Beethoven.
7. LUV: Southwest Airlines. It’s a reference to Dallas Love Field, where they are based.
8. EAT: Brinker International, Inc., which is the parent company of Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy.
9. CAR: Avis. Pretty logical.
10. BUNZ: Schlotzky’s Deli. This one is my favorite.

I think if mental_floss was heading down the publicly-traded road, I’d have to vote for EIN (as in Einstein, of course) for our ticker symbol. Have a clever stock symbol idea? Share it in the comments!

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Comments (27)

  1. You’re not a fan of “YUM”, the holding company for KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell?

    posted by InfoMofo on 9-30-2010 at 4:55 pm

  2. I like WOOF – VCA Antech (Animal Healthcare)

    posted by flexabull on 9-30-2010 at 5:21 pm

  3. Ludwig *VAN* Beethoven.

    I hate to be ‘that person,’ but wow! That needs fixing!

    posted by Zoe on 9-30-2010 at 6:05 pm

  4. HIIQ for Mental Floss

    posted by Scott on 9-30-2010 at 6:08 pm

  5. Would you chillax Zoe? For real, the guy is dead.

    posted by Candyce on 9-30-2010 at 6:41 pm

  6. @InfoMofo YUM! Brands is the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

    posted by Andrew on 9-30-2010 at 6:58 pm

  7. No, Zoe. Beethoven was from Germany. “Van” is the Dutch equivalent of “Von” which means “of” or “from”.

    posted by RD on 9-30-2010 at 6:58 pm

  8. “EWW” for Tampax?

    posted by Dusty on 9-30-2010 at 7:01 pm

  9. Great list. I always enjoyed this list a Wall Street blog put together a few years ago “10 Most Vulgar Ticker Symbols” – http://www.mademan.com/2008/04/10-most-vulgar-ticker-symbols/

    posted by Tron on 9-30-2010 at 7:03 pm

  10. I’ve always liked MMM for 3M

    posted by Beth on 9-30-2010 at 7:04 pm

  11. @RD: The Wiki disagrees with you:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven

    posted by Joel on 9-30-2010 at 7:04 pm

  12. Beethoven was German, but of Dutch (Flemish) ancestry, hence the Dutch last name.

    posted by ArmedWithGoogle on 9-30-2010 at 7:09 pm

  13. Zoe is correct, RD. Ludwig’s family wasn’t straight German through and through. They kept the “van” because it resembled the German “von,” which was associated with upper-class names.

    posted by Ericka on 9-30-2010 at 8:12 pm

  14. RD, actually Beethoven’s grandfather was of Flemish origin and therefore Zoe was correct in pointing out that it is Van and not Von.

    posted by Tom on 9-30-2010 at 9:36 pm

  15. CART the auto racing organization used to be traded under MPH.

    posted by Jason on 9-30-2010 at 10:55 pm

  16. Before being bought out by Roche, Bio-Tech company Genentech had the symbol DNA

    posted by Joe on 9-30-2010 at 10:59 pm

  17. there is a portable storage company that is mini-storage that says on the side of their units that they are traded on the NASDAQ as MINI. yay for mini things!

    posted by jocelyn on 10-1-2010 at 1:14 am

  18. How about “PEDL” for a bicycle company like Schwinn or Trek?

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 10-1-2010 at 3:16 am

  19. How about OUCH for Johnson and Johnson (makers of Band-Aids), or ROCK for Gibson or Fender guitars?

    posted by Bert on 10-1-2010 at 10:02 am

  20. IQTH for mental floss.

    posted by EV on 10-1-2010 at 10:33 am

  21. JAVA for the (now defunct) Sun Microsystems (after the Java programming language)

    CALL for Vocaltec Communications (carrier-level VOIP services)

    posted by GK on 10-1-2010 at 10:57 am

  22. EMC for Mental Floss, as in E=MC2.

    posted by Tinkerschnitzel on 10-1-2010 at 11:01 am

  23. The ticker for Cummins Inc, a maker of diesel engines, used to be CUM. It was changed years ago to CMI. The ticker for Potash Corp, a fertilizer company, is POT. Tenet Hospitals, THC.

    posted by Michael on 10-1-2010 at 11:13 am

  24. I recall Gateway Computers wanted MOO to reflect their cow colored shipping boxes.

    posted by Rich Man on 10-1-2010 at 12:20 pm

  25. How could you forget CAKE for the Cheesecake Factory?

    posted by Kaitlin on 10-1-2010 at 3:35 pm

  26. Until they were bought by Roche recently, the stock ticker symbol for Genentech, the first biotech company, was DNA.

    posted by curiousgeorgie on 10-1-2010 at 4:35 pm

  27. YUM for Taco Bell, Pizza Hut etc? Too bad BIGFATBUM was allready taken.

    posted by Bart on 10-3-2010 at 12:53 pm

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