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.

Hershey Stock Performance

Shares of Hershey stock opened at $230.72 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. Hershey has a twelve month low of $167.80 and a twelve month high of $231.96. The stock has a market cap of $47.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.34. The company's fifty day moving average is $218.52 and its 200 day moving average is $214.96.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY - Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for 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 business's quarterly revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.47 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hershey will post 8.2 EPS for the current year.

Hershey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 19th will be given a dividend of $1.036 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 18th. This represents a $4.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. This is a boost from Hershey's previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. Hershey's dividend payout ratio is 45.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Hershey

In other news, insider Charles R. Raup sold 1,512 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.90, for a total transaction of $334,000.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 16,737 shares in the company, valued at $3,697,203.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Charles R. Raup sold 1,512 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.90, for a total transaction of $334,000.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 16,737 shares in the company, valued at $3,697,203.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Hershey Trust Co Trustee In Tr sold 167,095 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.40, for a total transaction of $37,161,928.00. 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 insiders.