Hershey (HSY – Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $162.22, demonstrating a -1.99% swing from the preceding day’s closing price. The stock’s performance was behind the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.16%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.25%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.06%.
The chocolate bar and candy maker’s stock has dropped by 11.58% in the past month, falling short of the Consumer Staples sector’s loss of 5.98% and the S&P 500’s loss of 2.8%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Hershey in its forthcoming earnings report. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $2.38, marking a 17.82% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $2.86 billion, indicating a 7.55% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
Furthermore, it would be beneficial for investors to monitor any recent shifts in analyst projections for Hershey. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts’ favorable outlook on the company’s business health and profitability.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. 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, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.69% lower within the past month. Hershey is holding a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now.
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Hershey has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.64 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 20.02, which means Hershey is trading at a premium to the group.
One should further note that HSY currently holds a PEG ratio of 4.48. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company’s projected earnings growth. HSY’s industry had an average PEG ratio of 3.75 as of yesterday’s close.
The Food – Confectionery industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 242, which puts it in the bottom 4% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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