Is your dog a member of the family? Buy this stock

Published Mon, Mar 23 201511:14 AM EDT

Wall Street is bullish a maker of natural, refrigerated pet food as more Americans treat their dogs as "family members." Goldman Sachs is the latest firm to get very bullish Freshpet , forecasting the shares could double over the next four years. The firm added the stock to its so-called Conviction List of favorite stocks. The four other analysts on Wall Street that cover Freshpet also rate it a buy. "Freshpet remains well positioned at the crossroads of the secular trends of consumers migrating to more fresh and less processed foods for them and their families and people spending more on their pets as they increasingly treat them as family members," wrote Goldman's Jason English, who cited a recent study that shows four out of five pet owners treat Marmaduke like one of their own. The seller of "holistic" and "antibiotic and hormone free" meals like "Grain Free Chicken with Carrots and Spinach" stored in custom refrigerators in pet stores is tapping into high-end consumers' taste for fresh and locally sourced foods exhibited by the exploding growth in Whole Foods Market sales over the last decade, except now for their pets. Read More Top 5 stocks of the week and how to trade them Freshpet shares are up 7 percent this year through Friday, compared with a 14 percent gain for Whole Foods . The stock, which went public late last year, trades for nine times current sales. Not bad for such a recent IPO and considering that Goldman expects sales to triple over the next five years. Stated the Goldman Report: "Innovation in the $22 bn (billion) pet food category has been limited to iterative product launches (e.g., natural iterations of traditional dry kibble feed) for decades due to the dominance of large entrenched operators. In this context, we believe Freshpet has the potential to be a disruptive force in the category with its unique all-natural and refrigerated fresh product offering. It has created the highest growth segment within the otherwise sluggish pet food category." But not everyone on Wall Street loves the stock. Almost half of the shares are sold short as investors bet against this growth story laid out by Goldman. Bigger picture, there are doubts about the pet food category after Procter & Gamble shed its Iams and Eukanuba brands last year. For Petfresh, investors are also concerned that if sales slow at all, retailers may get rid of the custom refrigerators taking up a lot of room in their stores that can only be used to store Freshpet products. But Goldman notes a catalyst that could blow out the shorts: a takeover. "Sustainable organic sales growth in the staples universe is currently scarce, and as a result numerous mature companies have sought exposure to growth through acquisitions," English wrote. "If Freshpet's success continues, we believe it is possible that it will attract strategic interest from more established food or pet food companies." The analyst cites General Mills ' takeover of Annie's, a fast-growing organic foods provider, as a prime example of an old guard staples reaching for growth. Also worth noting, PetSmart, the biggest pure play retailer in the space, was taken private this month. — Michael Bloom , CNBC senior talent producer, contributed reporting.

FreshPet holiday feast ad.

Source: FreshPet

Wall Street is bullish a maker of natural, refrigerated pet food as more Americans treat their dogs as "family members."