Hershey (HSY) Rises Higher Than Market: Key Facts

Hershey (HSY) ended the recent trading session at $215.17, demonstrating a +2.39% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.15%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 1.38%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 1.38%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the chocolate bar and candy maker had lost 5.24% was narrower than the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 10.55% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.69%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Hershey in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.05, down 1.91% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.02 billion, up 7.59% from the year-ago period.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.21 per share and a revenue of $12.25 billion, representing changes of +30.11% and +4.78%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Hershey. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.53% higher within the past month. Hershey presently features a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking at valuation, Hershey is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 25.6. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 16.43 for its industry.

Also, we should mention that HSY has a PEG ratio of 1.34. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. HSY's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.54 as of yesterday's close.

The Food - Confectionery industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 6, finds itself in the top 3% echelons of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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Hershey Company (The) (HSY): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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