Hershey - HSY Stock Forecast, Price & News

The Hershey Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of confectionery products and pantry items in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America Confectionery, North America Salty Snacks, and International. It offers chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products; gum and mint refreshment products, including mints, chewing gums, and bubble gums; pantry items, such as baking ingredients, toppings, beverages, and sundae syrups; and snack items comprising spreads, meat snacks, bars and snack bites, mixes, popcorn, and protein bars. The company provides its products primarily under the Hershey's, Reese's, Kisses, Jolly Rancher, Almond Joy, Brookside, barkTHINS, Cadbury, Good & Plenty, Heath, Kit Kat, Payday, Rolo, Twizzlers, Whoppers, York, Ice Breakers, Breath Savers, Bubble Yum, Lily's, SkinnyPop, Pirates Booty, Paqui, Dot's Homestyle Pretzels, and ONE Bar brands, as well as under the Pelon Pelo Rico, IO-IO, and Sofit brands. It markets and sells its products to wholesale distributors, chain grocery stores, mass merchandisers, chain drug stores, vending companies, wholesale clubs, convenience stores, dollar stores, concessionaires, and department stores. The company was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HSY. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Hershey from $219.00 to $227.00 in a research note on Friday, July 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of Hershey from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Hershey from $214.00 to $237.00 in a research note on Friday, April 29th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Hershey from $200.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Friday, April 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Hershey from $215.00 to $255.00 in a report on Friday, April 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $219.64.

Hershey Stock Performance

HSY Stock opened at $225.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $46.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.34. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $217.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $214.04. Hershey has a 52 week low of $167.80 and a 52 week high of $231.96.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.24 billion. Hershey had a net margin of 16.76% and a return on equity of 60.62%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.47 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Hershey will post 8.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hershey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 19th will be given a dividend of $1.036 per share. This represents a $4.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 18th. This is a positive change from Hershey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. Hershey's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.80%.

Insider Activity at Hershey

In related news, CEO Michele Buck sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.15, for a total transaction of $1,045,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 185,555 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,808,828.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Pamela M. Arway sold 234 shares of Hershey stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.93, for a total value of $51,697.62. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,643 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,456,007.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Michele Buck sold 5,000 shares of Hershey stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.15, for a total transaction of $1,045,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 185,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,808,828.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 861,438 shares of company stock valued at $189,878,552. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.