Hershey (NYSE: HSY) Trust Sells $3.45 Million of Stock, Retains Vast Class B Stake

What happened

Hershey Trust sold about $3.45 million of Hershey Co (NYSE: HSY) common stock while reporting a much larger Class B holding. The sale looks different when both share classes are read together.

The trust, acting as trustee for Milton Hershey School, sold 20,000 common shares on October 22 and 23. Its Form 4 was signed October 26. Sales were evenly split between the two days.

Afterward, the reported direct common holding was 516,119 shares. A separate entry listed 54,612,012 Class B shares held directly, with no Class B sale reported. Another 39,630 common shares were held indirectly through Hershey Trust Company.

Key numbers

Metric	Latest	Change	Source
Shares sold	20,000 shares		SEC Form 4
Gross sale proceeds, calculated before taxes and costs	$3.45 million		Calculated from Form 4 transaction rows
Weighted average sale price range	$169.29 to $175.51 per share		SEC Form 4
Direct common shares after the sales, excluding Class B	516,119 shares		SEC Form 4
Sales divided by pre-sale direct common holding only	3.7%		Calculated from SEC Form 4

Read more: Hershey (HSY) stock analysis and investment case

Why it matters

The 20,000-share sale reduced the direct common holding by 3.7%, from 536,119 shares. That percentage applies only to this holding. It does not describe the reduction in all shares reported by the trust.

The Class B shares can convert into common stock one-for-one at any time, according to the filing. Their separate listing is therefore essential context when judging the scale of the common-stock sale.

The approximately $3.45 million figure is gross proceeds calculated from the reported share counts and weighted-average prices. It is not a realized profit: the filing does not establish the cost basis or taxes.

Reported weighted-average sale prices ranged from about $169.29 to $175.51. Individual executions within each reported block occurred at different prices, so those averages are not the full range of trade prices.

The filing describes an ownership transaction. It supplies no new operating results and cannot, by itself, establish a change in the trust's view of demand, pricing or margins.

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What's next

Future ownership filings can show whether common-stock sales continue or the Class B holding changes. Compare both tables and distinguish direct from indirect ownership before drawing a conclusion from a sale percentage.

The next company earnings disclosure will answer a separate question: how the business is performing. These sales alone do not supply that answer.

October 26, 2026: This article now makes clear that the 3.7% reduction applies only to the direct common-share holding, and that approximately $3.45 million represents gross proceeds rather than profit. The unsupported reference to a previous OptimistFi thesis has been removed.

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