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Hershey (HSY) Stock Declines While Market Improves: Some Information for Investors

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Hershey (HSY - Free Report) closed the latest trading day at $191.78, indicating a -0.82% change from the previous session's end. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.42%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.04%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.38%.

Shares of the chocolate bar and candy maker witnessed a gain of 0.16% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Consumer Staples sector with its gain of 2.54% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.06%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Hershey in its upcoming release. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $2.73, marking a 5% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $3.1 billion, showing a 2.41% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $9.47 per share and a revenue of $11.32 billion, representing changes of -1.25% and +1.38%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Hershey. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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, 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 0.32% downward. Right now, Hershey possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Hershey currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.41. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.17, so one might conclude that Hershey is trading at a premium comparatively.

Meanwhile, HSY's PEG ratio is currently 5.63. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Food - Confectionery industry had an average PEG ratio of 3.89.

The Food - Confectionery industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 100, placing it within the top 40% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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