Hershey (HSY) Stock Price, News & Analysis

19 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Hershey in the last twelve months. There are currently 13 hold ratings and 6 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street analysts is that investors should "hold" HSY shares. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in HSY, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.
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19 Wall Street research analysts have issued 12-month price objectives for Hershey's shares. Their HSY share price targets range from $180.00 to $310.00. On average, they anticipate the company's stock price to reach $232.10 in the next year. This suggests a possible upside of 14.7% from the stock's current price.
View analysts price targets for HSY or view top-rated stocks among Wall Street analysts.

Hershey's stock was trading at $186.44 on January 1st, 2024. Since then, HSY shares have increased by 8.5% and is now trading at $202.32.
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Hershey saw a decrease in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totaling 2,540,000 shares, a decrease of 9.3% from the December 31st total of 2,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,490,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.
View Hershey's Short Interest.

The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, February 8th 2024.
View our HSY earnings forecast.

The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October, 26th. The company reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.13. The business earned $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Hershey had a net margin of 17.11% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 54.74%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.17 earnings per share.
Read the conference call transcript.

Hershey announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $1.37 per share on Friday, March 15th. This represents a $5.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. This is an increase from the stock's previous quarterly dividend of $1.19.
Read our dividend analysis for HSY.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) pays an annual dividend of $4.77 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 2.45%. The company has been increasing its dividend for 14 consecutive years, indicating the company has a strong committment to maintain and grow its dividend. The dividend payout ratio is 51.46%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, HSY will have a dividend payout ratio of 49.07% next year. This indicates that the company will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
Read our dividend analysis for HSY.

ETFs with the largest weight of Hershey (NYSE:HSY) stock in their portfolio include Invesco Food & Beverage ETF (PBJ), First Trust Nasdaq Food & Beverage ETF (FTXG), AdvisorShares Focused Equity ETF (CWS), Hennessy Stance ESG Large Cap ETF (STNC), iShares MSCI Water Management Multisector ETF (IWTR), Invesco Dorsey Wright Consumer Staples Momentum ETF (PSL), VictoryShares US Multi-Factor Minimum Volatility ETF (VSMV) and American Customer Satisfaction ETF (ACSI).

Hershey updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday, February, 8th. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 9.590-9.590 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 9.820. The company issued revenue guidance of $11.4 billion-$11.5 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $11.6 billion.

208 employees have rated Hershey Chief Executive Officer Michele Buck on Glassdoor.com. Michele Buck has an approval rating of 89% among the company's employees.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other Hershey investors own include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Walt Disney (DIS), AT&T (T), NVIDIA (NVDA), Verizon Communications (VZ), Chevron (CVX), Procter & Gamble (PG), Coca-Cola (KO), Walmart (WMT) and Cisco Systems (CSCO).

Hershey's stock is owned by a number of retail and institutional investors. Top institutional investors include Nordea Investment Management AB (1.15%), California Public Employees Retirement System (0.44%), Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. (0.38%), Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (0.36%), Swiss National Bank (0.23%) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. (0.22%). Insiders that own company stock include Charles R Raup, Christopher M Scalia, Hershey Trust Co, Hershey Trust Co Trustee In Tr, James Turoff, Jason Reiman, Jennifer Mccalman, Kristen J Riggs, Michele Buck, Pamela M Arway, Pamela M Arway, Robert Malcolm, Rohit Grover and Steven E Voskuil.
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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.
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