430 Shares in The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) Bought by Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc.

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $80,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of HSY. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Hershey by 25.6% during the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,000 after buying an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. Eukles Asset Management lifted its position in Hershey by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Eukles Asset Management now owns 14,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,786,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown boosted its stake in Hershey by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown now owns 1,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Hershey by 55.8% during the 4th quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 9,077 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,692,000 after purchasing an additional 3,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Hershey by 50.1% in the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $364,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Hershey from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Hershey from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $191.00 to $183.00 in a report on Monday, February 12th. Edward Jones reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Hershey in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Hershey from $200.00 to $179.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Hershey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $235.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $223.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of Hershey stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total value of $296,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,228 shares in the company, valued at $7,961,121.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total value of $296,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,228 shares in the company, valued at $7,961,121.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jennifer Mccalman sold 453 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.54, for a total transaction of $89,938.62. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,862 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,681.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,453 shares of company stock worth $670,244 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hershey Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of HSY opened at $185.02 on Friday. The Hershey Company has a fifty-two week low of $178.82 and a fifty-two week high of $276.88. The business has a 50-day moving average of $192.31 and a 200 day moving average of $190.93. The firm has a market cap of $37.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. Hershey had a net margin of 16.67% and a return on equity of 51.79%. The company’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Hershey Company will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Hershey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $1.37 per share. This is a boost from Hershey’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.19. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. This represents a $5.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.96%. Hershey’s payout ratio is presently 60.55%.

Hershey Profile

The Hershey Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of confectionery products and pantry items in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America Confectionery, North America Salty Snacks, and International. It offers chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products; gum and mint refreshment products, including mints, chewing gums, and bubble gums; protein bars; pantry items, such as baking ingredients, toppings, beverages, and sundae syrups; and snack items comprising spreads, bars, snack bites, mixes, popcorn, and pretzels.