Judith Collins/Alamy WASHINGTON - Home improvement retailer Home Depot (HD) has been in contact with the U.S. Secret Service about an alleged major breach of customer and credit card data that came to light this week, a law enforcement source told Reuters on Thursday. Any investigation by the Secret Service appears to be at a very early stage, the source said. The Secret Service, which declined comment, usually is the lead agency in federal criminal investigations into complex breaches of credit card and other consumer data. Another law enforcement source said the FBI, which also sometimes participates in such investigations, doesn't appear to be involved. It is unclear whether the U.S. Department of Justice is playing any role. Customer data could have been stolen from nearly all of Home Depot's 2,200 stores in the United States, according to information released Wednesday by security blog Krebs on Security. Home Depot hasn't confirmed that a breach occurred and it remains unclear whether or how many customers were impacted. If confirmed, the Home Depot incident could be among the most widespread in the string of security breaches at U.S. retailers in the recent past. Spokeswoman Paula Drake said Wednesday that the retailer is working with IT security firms, including Symantec (SYMC) and FishNet Security, to investigate whether there has been a data breach. A Symantec spokeswoman confirmed that Symantec was assisting with the investigation but didn't elaborate. Home Depot sought to comfort its consumers, promising free identity-protection services, including credit monitoring, to any potentially impacted customers and reassuring that the retailer or the banks that issued the cards will be responsible for any fraudulent charges. Home Depot shares were up 1.6 percent at $90.39 Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. Concerns about a potential Home Depot data theft follow a major breach at retailer Target (TGT), where hackers late last year stole at least 40 million payment card numbers and 70 million other pieces of customer data. -.
Top 10 Supermarket Companies To Buy Right Now: Hormel Foods Corporation (HRL)
Hormel Foods Corporation processes, markets, and sells consumer-branded meat and food products. The company operates in five segments: Grocery Products, Refrigerated Foods, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Specialty Foods, and International & Other. The Grocery Products segment offers shelf-stable food products, including canned luncheon meats, shelf-stable microwaveable meals, stews, chilies, hash, meat spreads, flour and corn tortillas, salsas, and tortilla chips in the retail market. The Refrigerated Foods segment provides branded and unbranded pork and beef products for retail, foodservice, and fresh product customers. The Jennie-O Turkey Store segment offers branded and unbranded turkey products for retail, foodservice, and fresh product customers. The Specialty Foods segment is involved in the packaging and sale of various sugar and sugar substitute products, salt and pepper products, liquid portion products, dessert mixes, ready-to-drink products, sports nutrition products, g elatin products, and private label canned meats to retail and foodservice customers. This segment also processes, markets, and sells nutritional food products and supplements to hospitals, nursing homes, and other marketers of nutritional products. The International and Other segment manufactures, markets, and sells its products internationally. Hormel Foods Corporation sells its products through sales personnel, as well as through independent brokers and distributors primarily in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, England, Japan, Mexico, Micronesia, the Philippines, and South Korea. The company was formerly known as George A. Hormel & Company and changed its name to Hormel Foods Corporation in January 1995. Hormel Foods Corporation was founded in 1891 and is based in Austin, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Thanksgiving is around the corner�meaning investors might want to take a closer look at turkey stocks�like Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL), Seaboard Corporation (NYSEMKT: SEB) and Industrias Bachoco, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: IBA)���the last major�publicly traded turkey stocks available for investors. Moreover, the Wall Street Journal has pointed out that corn prices are the lowest in more than three years and fewer birds are in production as some producers cut back on their flocks this year due to weaker turkey commodity prices.�Feed prices, which make up about 70% of the cost of a turkey, had soared with the price of corn which hit the $8 a bushel level but a recent�bumper crop has sent corn prices plunging to about the $4 a bushel level.
Top 5 Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Seven & i Holdings Co Ltd (SVNDY)
Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japan-based holding company. The Company operates in six business segments. The Convenience Store segment operates convenience stores under the name 7-Eleven through direct operation and franchising. The Super Store segment operates general supermarkets, food supermarkets and specialty stores. The Department Store segment operates department stores with a focus on Seibu. The Food Service segment is engaged in the restaurant business, the contract food business and the fast food business. The Financial-related segment is engaged in the banking service, credit card and electronic money services. The Others segment is engaged in the information technology (IT) business. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jim Jubak]
If you're a trader, you try to catch these ups and downs. If you're a longer term trader, you sort of go with Japanese equities. The one that I've got in Jubak's Picks is Toyota Motor, (TM), which trades in New York as an ADR. You can also go with something like Torre Industries (TRYIF), which trades as an ADR in New York as well as on the Tokyo exchange. They're the world's largest maker of carbon fiber, good play on exports to the aircraft and car industries. Or you can do something like Seven & I (SVNDY), the Japanese company that owns 7-Elevens around the world. So, those would be my ways to play a weak yen if you want to use Japanese equities for the week and the year ahead.
Top 5 Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Bridgepoint Education Inc (BPI)
Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (Bridgepoint), incorporated in May 1999, is a provider of postsecondary education services. The Company�� academic institutions include Ashford University and University of the Rockies. Its institutions deliver programs primarily online, as well as at their traditional campuses. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had 86,642 total students enrolled in its institutions. Bridgepoint�� institutions conduct ongoing faculty and student assessment processes and provide a range of student services. The Company is also focused on developing new technologies, such as through Waypoint Outcomes, Constellation, and the development of its institutions' mobile learning platforms. The Company has developed Constellation to replace third party textbooks with digital course materials. Constellation materials are displayed in a browser-based platform. In January 2012, Bridgepoint introduced Thuze.
Ashford University offers associate's, bachelor's and master's degree programs online, as well as bachelor's degree programs at its campus in Clinton, Iowa. Ashford University consists of four colleges: the College of Business and Professional Studies, the College of Education, the College of Health, Human Services and Sciences, and the College of Liberal Arts. University of the Rockies is a graduate institution that offers master's and doctoral degree programs in the social and behavioral sciences. Classes at University of the Rockies are presented in a progressive online format, as well as at its campus in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Waypoint Outcomes provides learning and assessment software to K-12 and higher education institutions nationwide.
Constellation provides mobile access to students over the Internet, as well as on a variety of devices, including Web-enabled smartphones and tablet devices. Constellation is a cloud-based and is compatible across operating systems, browsers and mobile technologies. The Company has developed Constellation-enabled courses pri! marily in core classes to reach students. As of December 31, 2011, approximately 76% of Bridgepoint�� institutions' students had taken a Constellation-enabled course. As of December 31, 2011, it had 32 Constellation titles available. Thuze is a cloud-based, multi-platform, collaborative learning environment for students to interact with their course digital materials and with each other. Thuze provides students with the resources to work from both their desktop computers and also from their tablets and smartphones. It launched Thuze as a pilot program with publishers in higher education. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company deployed new mobile application technology at Ashford University. The Company has online students from all 50 states and from the District of Columbia. It has students from 69 different countries. As of December 31, 2011, over 34,400 students have graduated from the Company�� institutions, with approximately 15,200 students graduating from its institutions, during 2011.
Students finance their education at the Company's institutions through Title IV programs and Non-Title IV funding sources. Title IV programs includes The Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and Federal Direct Loan Programs. FFEL and Federal Direct Loan Programs consist of two loans: Stafford loans, which are either subsidized or unsubsidized, and PLUS loans, which are made available to graduate and professional students, as well as parents of dependent undergraduate students. Non-Title IV funding sources include other funding sources, which consist of cash, private loans, state grants, corporate reimbursement, military benefits and institutional loans. The Company has engaged Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS) to provide call center and transactional processing services for the online financial aid student populations at its institutions, including services related to disbursement eligibility review and Title IV fund returns. If Bridgepoint�� engagement with ACS were terminate! d, it wou! ld handle these processing services using its own resources or engage another third party vendor.
The Company�� institutions provide student support services, including academic, administrative and technology support. As of December 31, 2011, Bridgepoint�� institutions offered approximately 1,430 courses, 85 degree programs and 140 specializations. Its institutions offer programs and specialization areas through Ashford University's four colleges: the College of Business and Professional Studies; the College of Education; the College of Health, Human Services and Science; and the College of Liberal Arts, and through the University of the Rockies' two schools: the School of Organizational Leadership and the School of Professional Psychology. The Company�� leads are primarily generated from online sources. Its main source of leads is third party online lead aggregators. It also purchases keywords from search providers to generate online leads directly. In addition, the Company has an in-house team focused on generating online leads.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Newman]
Debt
Another factor to take into account is weighing the extra two years of college costs versus an extra two years of wages. According to College Reality Check, the net price for a bachelor's degree at�Bridgepoint Education's (NYSE: BPI ) Ashford University is about $17,300, only about $1,000 less than the cost of Harvard. An Ashford graduate can expect to earn $36,400 annually in his or her early career,�about $14,000 less than a Harvard grad. - [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI) shares tumbled 11.37 percent to $14.11 after the company announced a Q1 preliminary loss of $0.10 per share on sales of $160.5 million. The company also reported that it will be unable to file 10Q by May 12th.
Top 5 Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD)
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, incorporated on August 2, 1977, is a brewing company. The Company produces, markets, distributes and sells a balanced portfolio of approximately 200 beer brands. These include global flagship brands Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck��; multi-country brands, such as Leffe and Hoegaarden, and many local champions, such as Bud Light, Skol, Brahma, Quilmes, Michelob, Harbin, Sedrin, Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona, Chernigivske and Jupiler. The Company also produces and distributes soft drinks, particularly in Latin America. The Company operates in seven segments: North America, Latin America North, Latin America South, Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Global Export & Holding Companies. On October 20, 2010, Companhia de Bebidas das Americas-AmBev (AmBev) and Cerveceria Regional S.A. closed a transaction pursuant, to which they combined their businesses in Venezuela, with Regional owning an 85% interest and AmBev owning the remaining 15% in the new company. On February 28, 2011, the Company closed a transaction with Dalian Daxue Group Co., Ltd and Kirin (China) Investment Co., Ltd to acquire a 100% equity interest in Liaoning Dalian Daxue Brewery Co., Ltd. The Company�� beer portfolio is divided into global, multi-country and local brands. Beer can be differentiated into the categories, such as premium brands; mainstream or core brands, and value, discount or sub-premium brands. The Company also has a presence in the soft drink market in Latin America through its subsidiary AmBev and in the United States through Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (Anheuser-Busch). Soft drinks include both carbonated soft and non-carbonated soft drinks. Its soft drinks business includes both its own production and agreements with PepsiCo related to bottling and distribution. The brands that are distributed under these agreements are Pepsi, 7UP and Gatorade. AmBev has long-term agreements with PepsiCo whereby AmBev has the exclusive right to bottle, sell and distribute certain brands of PepsiCo�� portfolio of carbonated soft drinks in Brazil. In the United States, Anheuser-Busch also produces non-alcoholic malt beverage products, including O��oul�� and O��oul�� Amber, energy drinks and related products. In the United States, its indirect subsidiary, Metal Container Corporation, manufactures beverage cans at eight plants and beverage can lids at three plants for sale to its Anheuser-Busch beer operations and United States soft drink customers. Anheuser-Busch also owns a recycling business, which buys and sells used beverage containers and recycles aluminum and plastic containers; a manufacturer of crown liner materials for sale to its North American beer operations, and a glass manufacturing plant which manufactures glass bottles for use by its North American beer operations. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Brian O'Connell] Micro-brewers aren’t so micro anymore.
The gourmet beer industry is in a quandary these days that will impact the value of industry stocks, such as Boston Beer (NYSE: SAM), Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), and MolsonCoors (NYSE: TAP), among others. We think Boston Beer, maker of Sam Adams, is in the best position to thrive.
First, let’s wipe the foam way and study a problem for the industry that’s in significant need of a solution.
The brewery industry has unleashed an army of lobbyists upon Washington, DC, to curry favor, twist some arms (and yes, bend some elbows) to convince Congress to reduce tax burdens micro-brewers consider heavy and onerous. These taxes are a bottom line killer in a combative industry.
Companies such as Boston Beer and Anheuser Busch may have a point on high excise taxes. No longer are North America and Europe no-brainers for beer companies. Growth has stagnated in the so-called “old continents” and breweries are looking to new, emerging market opportunities such as China, India, and increasingly, Africa.
But the entire industry has the dry heaves over a declining market, with older Baby Boomers giving up their wicked ways and their Millennial kids opting for that raspberry cake martini over a nice pint of lager.
That’s where the lobbying campaign comes in, with 2012 a banner year for micro-brewery lobbying efforts, and 2013 should follow suit. In fact, lobbying ranks were significantly swelled as the big micro-brewers put the full-court press on Congress to alleviate what industry executives view as exorbitantly higher excise taxes.
This summer, the US Brewers Association launched a huge lobbying effort that targeted 90 US Senators and 250 members of the House of Representatives, with face-to-face meetings on tap with 250 brewery executives.
Under particular lobbying pressure is House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republica - [By Charles Sizemore]
In mid-February of last year, Anheuser-Busch Inbev (BUD) acquired Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, the maker of the Corona and Negro Modelo brands, but as part of the deal, BUD had to sell the distribution rights via its stake in Crown Imports in order to keep the regulators happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment