Sienna Gestion Makes New $1.17 Million Investment in Hershey Company (The) $HSY

Sienna Gestion purchased a new position in shares of Hershey Company (The) (NYSE:HSY) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 6,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,166,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. USS Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 30,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,574,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the last quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC now owns 8,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,462,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 35.9% in the fourth quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 70,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,839,000 after purchasing an additional 18,620 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 148,031 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,939,000 after purchasing an additional 7,089 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motiv8 Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hershey in the fourth quarter valued at $78,000. 57.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on HSY shares. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Hershey from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Hershey in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Hershey from $195.00 to $185.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Hershey from $230.00 to $208.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $249.00 price objective on shares of Hershey in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $218.06.

Hershey Trading Down 0.4%

HSY stock opened at $180.94 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $190.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.64. Hershey Company has a 52 week low of $160.07 and a 52 week high of $239.48. The company has a market capitalization of $36.70 billion, a PE ratio of 33.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.09.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.03 billion. Hershey had a net margin of 9.12% and a return on equity of 28.98%. Hershey’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Hershey Company will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Hershey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $1.452 per share. This represents a $5.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 108.19%.

Insider Transactions at Hershey

In other Hershey news, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.10, for a total transaction of $291,150.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 57,695 shares in the company, valued at $11,198,599.50. This represents a 2.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Hershey

The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) is a leading North American chocolatier and snack manufacturer headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The company develops, produces and markets a wide range of confectionery and snack products for retail, foodservice and international customers. Hershey’s business spans manufacturing, branded product marketing, packaging and distribution across grocery, convenience, mass merchant and e-commerce channels.

Hershey’s product portfolio centers on chocolate and sugar confectionery, including core brands such as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Hershey’s Kisses and Twizzlers, alongside non-chocolate snacks and confectionery brands.