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

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The latest trading session saw Hershey (HSY - Free Report) ending at $180.02, denoting a -1.55% adjustment from its last day's close. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.16%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.37%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.78%.

Shares of the chocolate bar and candy maker have depreciated by 4.66% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 3.18% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.67%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Hershey in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on November 7, 2024. On that day, Hershey is projected to report earnings of $2.54 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 2.31%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $3.08 billion, reflecting a 1.75% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $9.42 per share and revenue of $11.28 billion, which would represent changes of -1.77% and +1.05%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Hershey should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical 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 0.57% downward. Hershey is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Hershey has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.41 right now. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 18.55.

We can additionally observe that HSY currently boasts a PEG ratio of 4.22. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Food - Confectionery stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 3.49 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Food - Confectionery industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 207, putting it in the bottom 18% of all 250+ industries.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. 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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