4,246 Shares in The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) Purchased by HighPoint Advisor Group LLC

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $816,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Hershey during the 4th quarter valued at about $349,448,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Hershey by 18,495.8% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 295,673 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,125,000 after acquiring an additional 294,083 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Hershey by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,182,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,830,683,000 after acquiring an additional 271,636 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new stake in Hershey during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,672,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in Hershey by 270.8% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 197,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,478,000 after acquiring an additional 144,103 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HSY has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Hershey from $210.00 to $204.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Edward Jones reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Hershey in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Argus dropped their price target on shares of Hershey from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $213.00 price target on shares of Hershey in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Hershey from $213.00 to $199.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.22.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hershey news, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.54, for a total transaction of $306,810.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 37,228 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,614,615.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 4,500 shares of company stock worth $882,405 in the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hershey Stock Performance

NYSE:HSY opened at $182.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.11, a PEG ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $194.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $192.45. The Hershey Company has a fifty-two week low of $178.82 and a fifty-two week high of $262.30.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported $3.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.11 billion. Hershey had a net margin of 18.13% and a return on equity of 50.15%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.96 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that The Hershey Company will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Hershey Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a dividend of $1.37 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $5.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.00%. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.31%.

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.