Hershey (HSY) ended the recent trading session at $181.58, demonstrating a -1.42% change from the preceding day's closing price. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.58%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.31%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.89%.
Shares of the chocolate bar and candy maker have depreciated by 3.5% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 1%, and the S&P 500's gain of 0.16%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Hershey in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on October 30, 2025. In that report, analysts expect Hershey to post earnings of $1.08 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 53.85%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $3.12 billion, reflecting a 4.27% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $5.93 per share and a revenue of $11.51 billion, demonstrating changes of -36.71% and +2.78%, respectively, from the preceding year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Hershey. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.
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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.34% increase. Hershey is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, Hershey is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 31.05. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 21.68.
We can additionally observe that HSY currently boasts a PEG ratio of 4.44. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Food - Confectionery industry stood at 3.47 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 211, this industry ranks in the bottom 15% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Hershey Company (The) (HSY): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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