In the latest close session, Hershey (HSY) was up +1.02% at $171.45. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.22%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.08%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.51%.
The chocolate bar and candy maker's stock has climbed by 10.31% in the past month, exceeding the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 1.34% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.45%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Hershey in its upcoming release. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $0.99, signifying a 22.05% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $2.49 billion, showing a 20.03% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $5.97 per share and revenue of $11.47 billion, indicating changes of -36.29% and +2.39%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Hershey. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. 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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.29% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Hershey presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Hershey is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 28.42. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 22.65 of its industry.
We can additionally observe that HSY currently boasts a PEG ratio of 6.17. 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. Food - Confectionery stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 4.37 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Food - Confectionery industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 97, finds itself in the top 40% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within 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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Hershey Company (The) (HSY): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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