The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) Insider Rohit Grover Sells 1,180 Shares

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 22nd, 2023

The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY – Get Rating) insider Rohit Grover sold 1,180 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.79, for a total value of $287,672.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 18,999 shares in the company, valued at $4,631,766.21. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Hershey Stock Performance

Shares of HSY stock opened at $243.19 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $233.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $230.50. The Hershey Company has a 12 month low of $201.42 and a 12 month high of $247.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.55, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.25. Hershey had a return on equity of 57.76% and a net margin of 15.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that The Hershey Company will post 9.39 EPS for the current year.

Hershey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 17th were given a dividend of $1.036 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 16th. This represents a $4.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.01%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hershey

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HSY. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Hershey during the fourth quarter worth about $411,828,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Hershey by 2,693.0% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,094,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $237,156,000 after acquiring an additional 1,055,559 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Hershey by 57.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,648,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $613,352,000 after acquiring an additional 964,019 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Hershey by 20.0% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,671,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $789,931,000 after acquiring an additional 611,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Hershey by 3.4% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,486,327 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,193,800,000 after acquiring an additional 473,552 shares during the last quarter. 54.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on HSY. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Hershey from $255.00 to $277.00 in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Hershey from $246.00 to $237.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Hershey from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Credit Suisse Group raised their price objective on Hershey from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, UBS Group raised Hershey from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $244.00 to $269.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $244.54.

About Hershey

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The Hershey Co engages in the manufacture and marketing of chocolate, sweets, mints and confectionery products. The firm operates through the following geographical segments: North America and International and Other. The North America is responsible for the traditional chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery market position of the company, as well as its grocery and snacks market positions, in the United States and Canada.