Hershey (HSY) closed the most recent trading day at $169.12, moving -1.74% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.13%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.79%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.3%.
Shares of the chocolate bar and candy maker witnessed a gain of 5.15% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its gain of 3.14%, and the S&P 500's gain of 3.55%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Hershey in its upcoming earnings disclosure. In that report, analysts expect Hershey to post earnings of $0.99 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 22.05%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $2.49 billion, up 20.03% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.97 per share and revenue of $11.47 billion, which would represent changes of -36.29% and +2.39%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Hershey. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 0.29% downward. As of now, Hershey holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
From a valuation perspective, Hershey is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 28.82. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.92, which means Hershey is trading at a premium to the group.
We can additionally observe that HSY currently boasts a PEG ratio of 6.26. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Food - Confectionery stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 4.43 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Food - Confectionery industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 95, this industry ranks in the top 39% 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.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
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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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