Apple's (AAPL) new iTunes-based social networking service, Ping, has gotten off to a somewhat rocky start. The service allows iTunes users to see what others like and to recommend music.

But within 24 hours of Ping's launch it was inundated with comment spam. While Apple filters Ping for other offensive material, it apparently forgot about such spam, an obvious oversight.

Continue reading Apple's Ping Gets Off to a Rocky Start

Apple's Ping Gets Off to a Rocky Start originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hormel Foods (HRL) surged past analysts' fiscal first-quarter earnings estimates, with the sultan of Spam swinging to a profit of $111.2 million, or 82 cents per share, up 37% from the year-ago period. Sales for the quarter climbed 2.3% to $1.73 billion. Both numbers easily exceeded Wall Street's consensus expectations, which called for a profit of just 68 cents per share on $1.67 billion in revenue.

Hormel added to the positive momentum by boosting its earnings forecast for the rest of fiscal 2010. The packaged-foods firm now expects to bank a profit of $2.68 to $2.78 per share, up from its prior forecast of $2.63 to $2.73 per share.

Continue reading Spam Still Going Strong: Hormel Hikes Earnings Forecast

Spam Still Going Strong: Hormel Hikes Earnings Forecast originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Who needs venture capital money when you have litigation? Facebook was awarded $711 million in damages Thursday in an anti-spam case against Sanford Wallace, an internet marketer. The popular social networking platform went after Wallace for tapping its users' accounts without their permission and sending fake posts and messages.

Wallace has quite a reputation for spamming, having gained the nicknames "Spam King" and "Spamford" back in the 1990s, when he was good for up to 30 million spam e-mails a day.

Continue reading Facebook picks up $711 million; Spam King faces jail time

Facebook picks up $711 million; Spam King faces jail time originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

How desperate can they get? First I received a very long-winded, 10+ page e-mail from Motley Fool with the following sales pitch :That's why I'm offering you the chance to join Motley Fool Stock Advisor for just $79 -- that's 60% OFF our regular membership rate. But a word of warning: This special discount will be available for a limited time only!

Two days later, I received another 10+ page, jargon-filled e-mail blabbering on about the virtues of the newsletter while trying to create a sense of urgency because the clock was ticking and I was going to miss out.

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Motley Fools seem desperate

Sunday Funnies: Motley Fools seem desperate originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) pleased Wall Street this morning with an upwardly revised 2009 forecast. Thanks to a strong third-quarter performance from its Jennie-O turkey unit, along with solid results in its refrigerated foods and grocery products divisions, Hormel now expects fiscal 2009 earnings of $2.36 to $2.42 per share.

"We also benefited from better investment performance in our rabbi trust," commented Chairman, President, and CEO Jeffrey M. Ettinger in a company release.

Continue reading Hormel Foods hikes fiscal year outlook after a strong Q3

Hormel Foods hikes fiscal year outlook after a strong Q3 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) hasn't been a bad stock. Its recent performance is firmly in the green. Shares of Hormel have increased in value by 8% year-to-date. Over the last six months, the stock is up by roughly 16%.

Now we come to the food entity's second-quarter report, which was issued on Thursday. Do the numbers indicate that the stock will continue to trend higher? Or is now the time to sell?

Continue reading Hormel's second quarter: A passing grade

Hormel's second quarter: A passing grade originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 May 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Just last week, Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) surprised investors with stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings. Sales during the period were boosted by healthy demand for the company's recession-friendly canned ham-like product, Spam. Today, it seems that Standard & Poor's is revealing its own soft spot for potted meat, announcing that HRL will join its storied S&P 500 Index as of the close of trading on March 3.

Hormel will replace American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) in the closely watched broad-market index. The latter stock has given up nearly 96% of its value during the past year, and it's extending those losses today with a plunge of more than 16%.

Continue reading Standard & Poor's invites Spam to join S&P 500 Index

Standard & Poor's invites Spam to join S&P 500 Index originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) are on the upswing today, after the packaged-foods firm exceeded analysts' first-quarter earnings expectations. The company's upside surprise is partially attributable to strong sales of its infamous canned meat, Spam, which successfully lured in cost-conscious consumers.

During the recently concluded quarter, HRL banked a profit of $81.4 million, or 60 cents per share. That's an 8% slide from the same quarter last year, but analysts were expecting a profit of just 51 cents per share. Net sales rose 4% to $1.69 billion, with strong results for Dinty Moore stews, Hormel chili, and the aforementioned Spam.

Continue reading Sales rise at Hormel, boosted by strength in Spam

Sales rise at Hormel, boosted by strength in Spam originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We don't expect to find investment advice from opinion columns, but New York Times columnist Frank Rich unleashed a quartet to those willing to read between the lines in his recent piece "Herbert Hoover Lives."

Here's the money quote (no pun intended) from the theater critic turned political pundit: "What are Americans still buying? Big Macs, Campbell's soup, Hershey's chocolate and Spam -- the four food groups of the apocalypse."

Continue reading Riding the 'four food groups of the apocalypse'

Riding the 'four food groups of the apocalypse' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

Ah, Spam. Doesn't the word make your mouth water? Or maybe not. Either way, Spam must be given its due. It is the most famous of the mystery meats, those exciting concoctions of the meat-packing industry. It has been sold by the billions of cans since its invention in 1937. It helped feed the Allies and win World War Two. It is central to a Monty Python skit about Vikings in a greasy spoon, and now a Broadway musical. It provides a name for unwanted e-mail. It theoretically lasts forever. And it is a product of the Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL).

Spam is made in several places, but its ancestral home and main production facility is in Austin, Minnesota, sometimes called Spam Town. Austin is the small town south of Minneapolis that is home to Hormel, proud maker of all things Spam. (I should note that Hormel would prefer that we write "SPAM luncheon meat" but I don't think we'll take that suggestion too seriously.)

Hormel has long dominated the town of Austin, and not just because the Spam Museum is located there. It is by far the largest employer in town and the majority of workers in Austin work for Hormel, producing many of the company's meaty foods. Hormel's roots in the town go deep. Drawn by the town's good rail and river access, George A. Hormel opened a meat packing business there in 1891, and his small company eventually grew into the billion-dollar colossus that today owns a dizzying array of food brands, from Chi-Chi's and Valley Fresh to Dinty Moore and, of course, Spam. (Does it seem fair that one company gets to own both Dinty Moore and Spam?)

Continue reading Big company, small town: Hormel Foods, Austin, Minnesota

Big company, small town: Hormel Foods, Austin, Minnesota originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In tough financial times, certain food products and food preparation ideas seem to gain increasing favor with consumers. People try to find ways to prepare nutritious and interesting meals while gaining greater purchasing power from their hard-earned dollars.

Just the other day, some of us bloggers were engaged in a lively email chat regarding some of our tried-and-true strategies for stretching our grocery dollars. As you can guess, ramen noodles almost immediately took center stage. I was entertained with stories of the many ways that the slender pasta can be made quite appealing. For instance, if you take any brand of chunky salsa, cut it 50% with water, add a sliced hot dog and pour the heated mixture over the noodles, it's really a very delicious and satisfying meal.

As the discussion ebbed, I couldn't help but be amazed that no one had mentioned SPAM, by Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL). Surely, I thought, these people must know about the illustrious history of SPAM! Could they ignore the fact that SPAM has carried literally millions of people though hard times since prior to World War II? Though there is probably a ratio of three SPAM jokes to every one SPAM recipe, the fact remains that Hormel's SPAM, in all its variations, still sells exceptionally well. It sells even better as times get tough, as indicated by a recent Associated Press overview.

Continue reading SPAM: Good food and good company

SPAM: Good food and good company originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Associated Press reports that Spam sales are on the rise. Cans of Spam -- a pig byproduct -- are flying off the shelf as consumers are turning more to lunch meats and other lower-cost foods to extend their already stretched food budgets.

As I posted, consumers are going on a recession diet. I had not thought of Spam as a way to play this trend. But its sales are up 10.6% and its manufacturer, Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) has seen its profits rise 14%. But the price of Spam is up more than Hormel's stock, with the average 12 oz. can costing about $2.62. That's an increase of 17 cents, or nearly 7% from the same time last year.

Despite rising prices, Spam seems like a good alternative to consumers. AP quotes Kimberly Quan, a stay-at-home mom of three, who has been feeding her family more Spam in the last six months as she tries to make her food budget go further. "It's canned meat and it's in the cupboard and if everything else is gone from the fridge, it's there."

Continue reading Is Spam nutritious for your portfolio?

Is Spam nutritious for your portfolio? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 May 2008 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MySpace wins $230 million anti-spam case - but don't get too excited originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 May 2008 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Justice Department recently made headlines with its indictment of stock spam honcho Alan Ralsky, whom it accused of running a "spamming operation that, as alleged in the indictment, largely focused on running a stock pump and dump scheme, whereby the defendants sent spam touting thinly traded Chinese penny stocks, drove up their stock price, and reaped profits by selling the stock at artificially inflated prices."

Gary Weiss provides his usual skeptical insight, pointing out that what the "Justice Department doesn't say is that Ralsky was hardly holed up in some cave in Afghanistan. He was operating out in the open, and was even the subject of an article in The New York Times, for Pete's sake. The Spamhaus Project has a file on this man a mile long, and notes that the FBI raided his house three years ago."

The fact that it took the feds so long to do something -- and the fact that the SEC never did anything -- is interesting and indicative of the old saying that "the wheels of justice grind slowly."

Here's the lesson investors should take from this: the fact that no one has been arrested and trading hasn't been suspended doesn't mean that nothing is amiss. Investors cannot rely on the SEC to protect them from fraudulent investments.

Continue reading Stock spammer indicted for fraud -- what took so long?

Stock spammer indicted for fraud -- what took so long? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Israeli company Commtouch (NASDAQ: CTCH), a leading provider of email defense systems, announced today that all proposals presented to shareholders on its proxy statement for the annual meeting of shareholders held on December 14, 2007 were overwhelmingly approved, including the reverse stock split (by over 92% of the voting shares).

I guess the question is whether this is good, bad, or insignificant news? While in some cases reverse splits signal that a company is at the end of the line, in Commtouch's case that is not the case. The company continues to execute its business model well, and as more and more defense is needed to stop spammers, Commtouch should continue to grow. The company made this move in order to reduce the number of shares, as well as get the share price up over $5, where it would be open to more institutional interest.

It seems that this is a positive move and the fact that over 90% of the votes were in favor is a good sign. But what's really important is that it continues to sign deals and execute. If it does that, the stock will take care of itself.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer owns stock and is long CTCH. He has no position in any stock mentioned as of 12/13707.

Commtouch: Reverse split a non-event originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Commtouch (NASDAQ: CTCH), a leading provider of email defense systems, announced today that Check Point Software (NASDAQ: CHKP) has entered into a licensing agreement with the email firm. Commtouch's defense works on a three-pronged approach. Reputation service for blocking unwanted mail traffic at the perimeter, significantly reducing the necessary IT resources for handling email; Zero-Hour(TM) Virus Outbreak Protection to complement traditional anti-virus solutions; and Anti-spam, which works against all formats and languages including Asian languages, image spam and attachment spam.

Speaking to the importance of this deal, CEO Gideon Mantel said, "Check Point's choice of Commtouch as the best solution for its customers after a period of rigorous testing further validates our technology and is an important milestone for Commtouch. Commtouch is the only technology provider of three layers of email defense that, together, ensure continued effectiveness in the face of constantly changing threats. We believe this important and strategic agreement will positively impact our business."

Commtouch's business has been growing rapidly. The company had set a goal for 30 new deals for all of 2007, and it had almost achieved that goal by the end of October. Clearly there is a need for email spam protection; for investors looking at a small company making headway in this field, the stock may be a very attractive long-term play.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer owns stock and is long both CTCH and CHKP , as of 12/10/07.

Email defense firm Commtouch wins deal with Check Point originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading 95% of emails are spam --damn!

95% of emails are spam --damn! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay (EBAY) and Yahoo! (YHOO) join to prevent fraudulent email originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Regulators crack down on spam crooks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With more than two billion cell phone users in the world, advertising over mobile phones is most likely a way of the future. But it seems like every week I receive a silly, spam-like text message encouraging me to purchase overpriced ringtones or use some other expensive service. Like many cell phone users, I rarely (if ever) take action from these ads and I find them brutally annoying.

Interestingly, a recent Associated Press article reveals several new ways advertisers are targeting the mobile phone market without being so irritating. For example, cell phone users have been offered services that allow them to find the nearest restaurant, convenience store, and so forth. While this service is clearly useful for the phone-owner, the service-operators can also profit handsomely by selling spaces to the restaurants, convenience stores, and so on.

With the growing saturation of mobile internet use, advertising over mobile internet pages could also make sense. But it's important for advertisers to remember that excessively-commercialized websites are a powerful turn-off to readers and users. Therefore, I'd bet that mobile websites would be limited to one or two advertisements per page. According to the AP article, this mobile internet advertising business has taken off in the Japanese market where most of the country's cell phone owners also have mobile internet access.

Going forward, more realistic and useful advertising methods are going to become more prominent in the mobile phone space. However, mobile phone network operators must be careful with what advertising is permitted. Moves further into the spam category will incense consumers, while moves towards useful and profitable advertising will probably sit well with most consumers.

See also:
Can AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) make money on cell phone ads?

Less annoying cell phone ads are the way of the future originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.