Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC Invests $623,000 in Hershey Company (The) $HSY

Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Hershey Company (The) (NYSE:HSY) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Syon Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hershey by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 3,020 shares of the company’s stock worth $550,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Inc. CA lifted its holdings in shares of Hershey by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Inc. CA now owns 85,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,540,000 after acquiring an additional 10,233 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Hershey by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 9,106,431 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,657,189,000 after acquiring an additional 169,660 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hershey by 20.7% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,555 shares of the company’s stock worth $437,000 after acquiring an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Hershey in the fourth quarter worth about $137,000. Institutional investors own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HSY has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Hershey from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Hershey from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Hershey from $212.00 to $200.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Hershey in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Hershey from $211.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $218.06.

Insider Transactions at Hershey

In other news, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.10, for a total transaction of $291,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 57,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,198,599.50. This trade represents a 2.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Hershey Stock Down 0.1%

Hershey stock opened at $184.42 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.24. Hershey Company has a 52-week low of $160.07 and a 52-week high of $239.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $194.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.89. The firm has a market cap of $37.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.09.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $2.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.31. Hershey had a net margin of 9.12% and a return on equity of 28.98%. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Hershey Company will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

Hershey Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.452 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $5.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 108.19%.

Hershey Profile

The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) is a leading North American chocolatier and snack manufacturer headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The company develops, produces and markets a wide range of confectionery and snack products for retail, foodservice and international customers. Hershey’s business spans manufacturing, branded product marketing, packaging and distribution across grocery, convenience, mass merchant and e-commerce channels.

Hershey’s product portfolio centers on chocolate and sugar confectionery, including core brands such as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Hershey’s Kisses and Twizzlers, alongside non-chocolate snacks and confectionery brands.