Rocky Mountain's Q1 suffers from recession fever

This just wasn't a great earnings report. Management, however, is making moves to keep ahead of the pullback in consumer spending. Franchisees are obviously extremely important to the overall success of the company's business model. Rocky Mountain said it has offered assistance with negotiations for lower rents. The company is also attempting to strengthen the quality of its portfolio by evaluating locations that Rocky Mountain can buy to operate and/or resell to other franchisees. In addition, the balance sheet has been given attention.

When it comes to chocolate as a business concept, you'd think it would be easy. It isn't. Chocolate may be irresistible, but discretionary cash is not limitless. Even a bigger entity like Hershey (NYSE: HSY) has to be careful. It recently announced the closure of an online asset.

Rocky Mountain can do nothing more than act as defensively as possible as the recession grinds on. The company should up the ante in terms of marketing efforts, but I concede, Rocky Mountain doesn't exactly have the kind of brand power that a Hershey can leverage.

When it comes to the stock, it is is trading at a delicious yield. At over 5%, Rocky Mountain might catch the attention of income investors. And the shares have certainly bounced off their lows of the year.

If you want to take a chance on Rocky Mountain with some risk capital, you might be able to so long as you realize that the stock might take a while to fully rebound. I'm sure you've noticed that the headline news is beginning to become a little sour again. That might give Wall Street an excuse to start correcting the indexes. And if that happens, Rocky Mountain will probably be taken down along with the rest of the market.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change without notice.