Culbertson A N & Co. Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Hershey Company (The) $HSY

Culbertson A N & Co. Inc. cut its stake in shares of Hershey Company (The) (NYSE:HSY) by 7.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 15,277 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,290 shares during the period. Culbertson A N & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Hershey were worth $2,535,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Hershey by 6,721.3% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 819,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,150,000 after purchasing an additional 807,433 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in Hershey by 25.4% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,753,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $470,858,000 after acquiring an additional 557,056 shares during the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hershey during the 2nd quarter worth $90,588,000. Equity Investment Corp purchased a new position in Hershey during the second quarter worth about $73,706,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hershey by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,991,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $853,720,000 after purchasing an additional 356,249 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HSY. Mizuho boosted their target price on Hershey from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Hershey from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Hershey in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Hershey from $155.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Hershey from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $170.00 to $222.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $179.05.

Hershey Price Performance

HSY stock opened at $179.22 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $183.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.80, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.24. Hershey Company has a 1 year low of $140.13 and a 1 year high of $208.03.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.11 billion. Hershey had a net margin of 13.54% and a return on equity of 37.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.34 earnings per share. Hershey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.900-6.000 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Hershey Company will post 6.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hershey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a $1.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. This represents a $5.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hershey

In other news, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of Hershey stock in a transaction on Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.52, for a total transaction of $281,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 56,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,654,698.88. The trade was a 2.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

About Hershey

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.