Free Trial

Hershey (HSY) Competitors

Hershey logo
$181.48 +2.12 (+1.18%)
Closing price 08/22/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$181.40 -0.08 (-0.04%)
As of 08/22/2025 07:39 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

HSY vs. KHC, MDLZ, CHD, COTY, GIS, HRL, K, LW, MKC, and POST

Should you be buying Hershey stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Hershey include Kraft Heinz (KHC), Mondelez International (MDLZ), Church & Dwight (CHD), Coty (COTY), General Mills (GIS), Hormel Foods (HRL), Kellanova (K), Lamb Weston (LW), McCormick & Company, Incorporated (MKC), and Post (POST).

Hershey vs. Its Competitors

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) and Hershey (NYSE:HSY) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.

Kraft Heinz has a beta of 0.23, suggesting that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hershey has a beta of 0.27, suggesting that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Kraft Heinz has higher revenue and earnings than Hershey. Kraft Heinz is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hershey, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Kraft Heinz$25.85B1.28$2.74B-$4.49-6.25
Hershey$11.20B3.28$2.22B$7.5324.10

78.2% of Kraft Heinz shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.0% of Hershey shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Kraft Heinz shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Hershey shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Kraft Heinz presently has a consensus price target of $30.12, indicating a potential upside of 7.33%. Hershey has a consensus price target of $170.83, indicating a potential downside of 5.86%. Given Kraft Heinz's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Kraft Heinz is more favorable than Hershey.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Kraft Heinz
3 Sell rating(s)
16 Hold rating(s)
0 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
1.84
Hershey
4 Sell rating(s)
14 Hold rating(s)
0 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
1.78

Kraft Heinz pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Hershey pays an annual dividend of $5.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Kraft Heinz pays out -35.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hershey pays out 72.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Hershey has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Kraft Heinz is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Hershey has a net margin of 13.54% compared to Kraft Heinz's net margin of -20.83%. Hershey's return on equity of 37.36% beat Kraft Heinz's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Kraft Heinz-20.83% 7.40% 4.01%
Hershey 13.54%37.36%12.73%

In the previous week, Hershey had 16 more articles in the media than Kraft Heinz. MarketBeat recorded 45 mentions for Hershey and 29 mentions for Kraft Heinz. Kraft Heinz's average media sentiment score of 1.26 beat Hershey's score of 0.94 indicating that Kraft Heinz is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Kraft Heinz
20 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
5 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Hershey
23 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
12 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Summary

Kraft Heinz and Hershey tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

Get Hershey News Delivered to You Automatically

Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for HSY and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.

New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding HSY and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip Chart

Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Skip Chart

HSY vs. The Competition

MetricHersheyFOOD IndustryStaples SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$36.78B$14.25B$16.61B$21.32B
Dividend Yield3.02%1.96%3.02%3.51%
P/E Ratio24.1025.7718.7229.14
Price / Sales3.283.2247.4555.22
Price / Cash15.5419.2815.0924.09
Price / Book8.154.395.825.47
Net Income$2.22B$815.79M$687.69M$992.74M
7 Day Performance1.97%3.96%0.67%2.68%
1 Month Performance-0.96%-2.07%-2.32%1.53%
1 Year Performance-7.55%8.45%5.27%10.77%

Hershey Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
HSY
Hershey
3.9037 of 5 stars
$181.48
+1.2%
$170.83
-5.9%
-7.2%$36.78B$11.20B24.1020,030Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision
KHC
Kraft Heinz
4.5786 of 5 stars
$27.27
-1.5%
$30.35
+11.3%
-21.0%$32.28B$25.85B-6.0736,000Positive News
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
MDLZ
Mondelez International
4.8194 of 5 stars
$61.80
-0.5%
$71.95
+16.4%
-10.5%$79.91B$36.44B22.6290,000Trending News
Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision
CHD
Church & Dwight
4.5689 of 5 stars
$92.90
+0.5%
$103.94
+11.9%
-7.5%$22.64B$6.07B43.855,750Positive News
COTY
Coty
4.5595 of 5 stars
$4.99
+1.3%
$7.80
+56.4%
-60.9%$4.35B$6.00B-10.3911,791Trending News
Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast
Options Volume
GIS
General Mills
4.5248 of 5 stars
$49.28
-0.8%
$59.73
+21.2%
-29.0%$26.73B$19.49B12.0233,000Positive News
Analyst Forecast
HRL
Hormel Foods
4.6058 of 5 stars
$28.27
-0.8%
$32.86
+16.2%
-8.5%$15.56B$11.92B20.8120,000News Coverage
Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Upgrade
K
Kellanova
3.1526 of 5 stars
$80.03
-0.2%
$83.38
+4.2%
-0.7%$27.82B$12.75B21.0024,000Positive News
Analyst Forecast
Insider Trade
LW
Lamb Weston
4.5573 of 5 stars
$54.24
+0.2%
$67.40
+24.3%
-8.9%$7.55B$6.45B21.6010,100News Coverage
Positive News
Analyst Forecast
MKC
McCormick & Company, Incorporated
3.9711 of 5 stars
$68.45
-1.8%
$83.00
+21.3%
-8.2%$18.36B$6.72B23.7614,100News Coverage
Positive News
Analyst Upgrade
POST
Post
4.2367 of 5 stars
$107.77
-0.7%
$131.25
+21.8%
-0.9%$5.86B$7.92B18.3411,480Trending News
Analyst Forecast
Insider Trade

Related Companies and Tools


This page (NYSE:HSY) was last updated on 8/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
From Our Partners