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Hershey (HSY) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Hershey (HSY - Free Report) closed at $223.27, marking a -1.61% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.75% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 10.36%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the chocolate bar and candy maker had lost 2.42% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 3.33% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.98% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Hershey as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.78, up 5.33% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $2.58 billion, up 10.91% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Hershey. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.01% higher. Hershey currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Hershey's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 25.31. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.69, which means Hershey is trading at a premium to the group.

Investors should also note that HSY has a PEG ratio of 3.3 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Food - Confectionery industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 3.3 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 100, which puts it in the top 40% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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