Hershey (HSY) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Hershey (HSY) closed at $174.34, marking a +1.25% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.59%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.6%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.65%.

The stock of chocolate bar and candy maker has fallen by 6.54% in the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 2.41% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.37%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Hershey in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Hershey to post earnings of $2.11 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 62.31%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $3.26 billion, indicating a 2.34% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.49 per share and a revenue of $12.29 billion, representing changes of +34.55% and +5.13%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Hershey. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.07% higher. Hershey presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Hershey is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 20.29. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 20.03.

We can also see that HSY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.36. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Food - Confectionery industry stood at 1.36 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Food - Confectionery industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 224, this industry ranks in the bottom 9% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.

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

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