Hershey (NYSE:HSY) Shares Down 4.3% – What’s Next?

Shares of Hershey Company (The) (NYSE:HSY) traded down 4.3% during mid-day trading on Monday. The company traded as low as $169.90 and last traded at $170.4060. Approximately 573,615 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the average session volume of 1,848,895 shares. The stock had previously closed at $178.08.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on HSY shares. UBS Group lowered their price target on Hershey from $178.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 30th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on shares of Hershey from $195.00 to $190.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 27th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Hershey from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $198.00 to $173.00 in a research report on Friday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Hershey from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price target on shares of Hershey from $166.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $193.81.

Hershey Trading Down 2.5%

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $168.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $188.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $34.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.08.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported $2.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.53. Hershey had a return on equity of 37.12% and a net margin of 14.63%. The firm had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.30 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Hershey Company will post 8.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hershey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 16th will be given a $1.4520 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 16th. This represents a $5.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Hershey’s payout ratio is currently 65.61%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hershey

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bell Investment Advisors Inc acquired a new position in shares of Hershey during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Hershey during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Compass Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hershey in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hershey in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Latitude Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hershey in the third quarter worth $33,000. Institutional investors own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Hershey Company Profile