Hershey (HSY) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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; protein bars; pantry items, such as baking ingredients, toppings, beverages, and sundae syrups; and snack items comprising spreads, bars, snack bites, mixes, popcorn, and pretzels. 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, 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 exports its products in approximately 80 countries worldwide. The Hershey Company was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $170.59 to $174.23
• 50-Day Range: $144.78 to $186.19
• 52-Week Range: $140.13 to $211.92
• Volume: 1.54 million shs
• Average Volume: 1.80 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $34.75 billion
• P/E Ratio: 15.75
• Dividend Yield: 3.19%
• Price Target: $164.15
• Consensus Rating: Reduce

Hershey Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Hershey scored higher than 83% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 36th out of 153 stocks in the consumer staples sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Reduce

Consensus Rating

Hershey has received a consensus rating of Reduce. The company's average rating score is 1.76, and is based on no buy ratings, 16 hold ratings, and 5 sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Hershey has been the subject of 14 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 11.60%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Hershey are expected to grow by 11.60% in the coming year, from $6.12 to $6.83 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Hershey is 15.75, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 23.14.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Hershey is 15.75, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Consumer Staples sector average P/E ratio of about 15.94.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Hershey has a PEG Ratio of 5.90. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Hershey has a P/B Ratio of 7.37. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

3.92% of the float of Hershey has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Hershey has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.3, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Hershey has recently increased by 3.40%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Hershey pays a meaningful dividend of 2.96%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Hershey has been increasing its dividend for 15 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Hershey is 50.28%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on EPS estimates, Hershey will have a dividend payout ratio of 80.23% in the coming year. This indicates that Hershey may not be able to sustain their current dividend.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Environmental Score: -1.32

Percentage of Shares Shorted

3.92% of the float of Hershey has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Hershey has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.3, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Hershey has recently increased by 3.40%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing.

News and Social Media

• Score: 2.8 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.12

News Sentiment

Hershey has a news sentiment score of 1.12. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.77 average news sentiment score of Consumer Staples companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 42 news articles for Hershey this week, compared to 22 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 33 people have searched for HSY on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -33% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

Only 16 people have added Hershey to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -16% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.7 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Hershey insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $41,144.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 0.29% of the stock of Hershey is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

57.96% of the stock of Hershey is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

HSY Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have HSY shares performed this year?

Hershey's stock was trading at $169.35 at the beginning of the year. Since then, HSY stock has increased by 1.4% and is now trading at $171.6650.
View the best growth stocks for 2025 here.

How were Hershey's earnings last quarter?

The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February, 6th. The company reported $2.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.29. Hershey had a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 44.77% and a net margin of 19.83%.
Read the conference call transcript.

Does Hershey have any subsidiaries?

Hershey subsidiaries include these companies: Dot's Pretzels, Lily's Sweets, One Brands LLC, Pirate Brands, Amplify Snack Brands2, Ripple Brand Collective LLC, Krave Pure Foods, and more.

Who are Hershey's major shareholders?

Top institutional shareholders of Hershey include Vanguard Group Inc. (9.47%), Capital International Investors (6.16%), Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. (2.29%) and Geode Capital Management LLC (1.88%). Insiders that own company stock include Hershey Trust Co Trustee In Tr, Michele Buck, Hershey Trust Co, Steven E Voskuil, Rohit Grover, Jason Reiman, Pamela M Arway, Charles R Raup, Robert Malcolm, Christopher M Scalia, Kristen J Riggs and Jennifer Mccalman.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Hershey?

Shares of HSY stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Hershey own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Hershey investors own include Salesforce (CRM), Chevron (CVX), AbbVie (ABBV), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Coca-Cola (KO), Home Depot (HD) and Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK).

Company Calendar

• Ex-Dividend for 12/16 Dividend: 11/18/2024
• Dividend Payable: 12/16/2024
• Last Earnings: 2/06/2025
• Ex-Dividend for 3/14 Dividend: 2/14/2025
• Today: 3/13/2025
• Dividend Payable: 3/14/2025
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 5/02/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Consumer Staples
• Industry: Sugar & confectionery products
• Sub-Industry: Packaged Foods & Meats
• Current Symbol: NYSE:HSY
• CIK: 47111
• Web: www.thehersheycompany.com
• Phone: (717) 534-4200
• Fax: 717-534-7873
• Employees: 19,900
• Year Founded: 1894

Price Target and Rating

• Average Stock Price Target: $164.15
• High Stock Price Target: $225.00
• Low Stock Price Target: $120.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: -4.4%
• Consensus Rating: Reduce
• Rating Score (0-4): 1.76
• Research Coverage: 21 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year): $10.90
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 15.75
• Forward P/E Ratio: 28.05
• P/E Growth: 5.9
• Net Income: $2.22 billion
• Net Margins: 19.83%
• Pretax Margin: 22.08%
• Return on Equity: 44.77%
• Return on Assets: 15.14%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.68
• Current Ratio: 0.96
• Quick Ratio: 0.64

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $11.20 billion
• Price / Sales: 3.10
• Cash Flow: $12.06 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 14.23
• Book Value: $23.30 per share
• Price / Book: 7.37

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 202,411,000
• Free Float: 201,667,000
• Market Cap: $34.75 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.32