Opal Wealth Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 521 Hershey Company (The) $HSY

Opal Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hershey Company (The) (NYSE:HSY) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 521 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $86,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of HSY. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Hershey by 18,311.7% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,010,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,728,460,000 after purchasing an additional 1,005,127 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Hershey by 6,721.3% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 819,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,150,000 after buying an additional 807,433 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in Hershey by 25.4% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,753,077 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,858,000 after buying an additional 557,056 shares in the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Hershey in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $90,588,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Hershey by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,991,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $853,720,000 after acquiring an additional 356,249 shares in the last quarter. 57.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hershey

In related news, SVP James Turoff sold 1,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $227,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 25,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,431,175. This trade represents a 4.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rohit Grover sold 1,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total transaction of $240,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 38,068 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,852,240. This trade represents a 3.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 87,627 shares of company stock valued at $16,043,435. 0.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on HSY. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Hershey in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $187.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Hershey from $173.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson increased their price target on Hershey from $171.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Hershey from $155.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Hershey from $160.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $173.89.

Hershey Stock Performance

HSY opened at $190.72 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.33, a PEG ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a fifty day moving average of $183.69 and a 200 day moving average of $172.34. Hershey Company has a fifty-two week low of $140.13 and a fifty-two week high of $208.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Hershey had a return on equity of 37.36% and a net margin of 13.54%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 26.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.27 earnings per share. Hershey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.809-5.997 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Hershey Company will post 6.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hershey Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $1.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $5.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.78%.

Hershey Profile

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.