Shares of The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY – Get Rating) saw an uptick in trading volume on Monday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $220.00 to $230.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an underweight rating on the stock. 333,644 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 69% from the previous session's volume of 1,080,344 shares.The stock last traded at $237.20 and had previously closed at $236.28.

HSY has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Hershey from $231.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered Hershey from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 31st. UBS Group raised Hershey from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $244.00 to $269.00 in a report on Thursday, December 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Hershey from $255.00 to $277.00 in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Hershey from $236.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $243.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hershey news, Director Pamela M. Arway sold 211 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.97, for a total value of $47,679.67. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,561 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,319.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Hershey news, CEO Michele Buck sold 14,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.43, for a total value of $3,240,877.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 130,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,692,123.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Pamela M. Arway sold 211 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.97, for a total value of $47,679.67. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,561 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,319.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 32,423 shares of company stock valued at $7,308,449. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hershey Stock Up 1.8 %

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $229.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $227.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $49.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.22, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.35.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.58 billion. Hershey had a return on equity of 57.76% and a net margin of 15.79%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Hershey Company will post 9.39 EPS for the current year.

Hershey Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 17th will be paid a dividend of $1.036 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 16th. This represents a $4.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Hershey's dividend payout ratio is 52.01%.

About Hershey

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The Hershey Co engages in the manufacture and marketing of chocolate, sweets, mints and confectionery products. The firm operates through the following geographical segments: North America and International and Other. The North America is responsible for the traditional chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery market position of the company, as well as its grocery and snacks market positions, in the United States and Canada.

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