Semanteon Capital Management LP Buys Shares of 3,491 The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY)

Semanteon Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $651,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in HSY. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Hershey by 7.8% during the third quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,126 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 78.8% in the third quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 14,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,938,000 after purchasing an additional 6,472 shares during the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 3,285.7% in the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 474 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 12.8% in the third quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,767 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Hershey by 50.2% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 26,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,240,000 after purchasing an additional 8,758 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on HSY shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Hershey from $205.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Hershey from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Hershey from $200.00 to $179.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Hershey from $185.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Hershey from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $235.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hershey has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $223.33.

Hershey Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HSY traded down $0.92 on Friday, hitting $186.23. 1,186,501 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,945,917. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $191.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $190.71. The Hershey Company has a one year low of $178.82 and a one year high of $276.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.68, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.34.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.72 billion. Hershey had a net margin of 16.67% and a return on equity of 51.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that The Hershey Company will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Hershey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 20th were issued a $1.37 dividend. This is a positive change from Hershey’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.19. This represents a $5.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 16th. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.55%.

Insider Activity at Hershey

In other Hershey news, CAO Jennifer Mccalman sold 453 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.54, for a total value of $89,938.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,862 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,681.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Jennifer Mccalman sold 453 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.54, for a total transaction of $89,938.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,862 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $369,681.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Steven E. Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.83, for a total transaction of $278,745.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,196,824.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,453 shares of company stock worth $665,534 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hershey Company 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.