NEW YORK – Investors gave cool reception to the new Hormel Foods contract with its unionized workers. Hormel stock plunged to 9.8% to $32.67 – the lowest in more than five years. Hormel’s new four-year contract boosts wages as much as 6% a year. The drop in stock value came even though the company had staged a rosy investor event to offset news about the new labor deal. The company projected operating income growth of 5% to 7% by fiscal 2026. Besides its legacy neat products, most notably Spam, Hormel has other 40 other branded food products. Among them: Applegate, Planters and Skippy.
