Hershey Company (The) $HSY Shares Purchased by Motco

Motco raised its position in Hershey Company (The) (NYSE:HSY) by 136.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,573 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the quarter. Motco’s holdings in Hershey were worth $261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HSY. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Hershey by 6,721.3% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 819,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,150,000 after acquiring an additional 807,433 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in Hershey by 25.4% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,753,077 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,858,000 after acquiring an additional 557,056 shares during the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC purchased a new position in Hershey in the second quarter worth approximately $90,588,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Hershey by 7.7% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,991,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $853,720,000 after acquiring an additional 356,249 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in Hershey by 40.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,237,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $208,227,000 after acquiring an additional 356,105 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.52, for a total value of $281,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 56,819 shares in the company, valued at $10,654,698.88. This represents a 2.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HSY. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Hershey from $192.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Hershey from $155.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $193.00 price objective on shares of Hershey in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Hershey from $160.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Hershey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $177.67.

Hershey Stock Down 3.1%

HSY stock opened at $174.70 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $186.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.95. Hershey Company has a 12 month low of $140.13 and a 12 month high of $208.03. The company has a market cap of $35.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.23. Hershey had a net margin of 13.54% and a return on equity of 37.36%. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.27 EPS. Hershey’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Hershey Company will post 6.12 earnings per share for the current year.

About Hershey

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.