The Hershey Company

NYSE:HSY Stock Report

Market Cap: US$34.5b

Hershey Valuation

Is HSY undervalued compared to its fair value, analyst forecasts and its price relative to the market?

Valuation Score

5/6

Valuation Score 5/6

  • Below Fair Value

  • Significantly Below Fair Value

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Peers

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Industry

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio

  • Analyst Forecast

Share Price vs Fair Value

What is the Fair Price of HSY when looking at its future cash flows? For this estimate we use a Discounted Cash Flow model.

Below Fair Value: HSY ($169) is trading below our estimate of fair value ($309.03)

Significantly Below Fair Value: HSY is trading below fair value by more than 20%.

Key Valuation Metric

Which metric is best to use when looking at relative valuation for HSY?

Key metric: As HSY is profitable we use its Price-To-Earnings Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Earnings ratio for HSY. This is calculated by dividing HSY's market cap by their current earnings.
What is HSY's PE Ratio?
PE Ratio19.3x
EarningsUS$1.77b
Market CapUS$34.45b

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Peers

How does HSY's PE Ratio compare to its peers?

The above table shows the PE ratio for HSY vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PEEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average23.4x
GIS General Mills
13.5x1.4%US$35.1b
KHC Kraft Heinz
26.9x28.3%US$36.9b
K Kellanova
26.9x9.0%US$27.7b
MKC McCormick
26.5x5.9%US$21.2b
HSY Hershey
19.3x2.6%US$34.5b

Price-To-Earnings vs Peers: HSY is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (19.3x) compared to the peer average (23.4x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry

How does HSY's PE Ratio compare vs other companies in the US Food Industry?

6 CompaniesPrice / EarningsEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
GCEH Global Clean Energy Holdings
0.9xn/aUS$70.26m
SEED Origin Agritech
1.8xn/aUS$13.46m
IDBH.F Industrias Bachoco. de
0.02xn/aUS$9.65m
TWG Top Wealth Group Holding
2.4xn/aUS$5.59m
HSY 19.3xIndustry Avg. 19.8xNo. of Companies7PE01020304050+
6 CompaniesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Earnings vs Industry: HSY is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (19.3x) compared to the US Food industry average (19.8x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Fair Ratio

What is HSY's PE Ratio compared to its Fair PE Ratio? This is the expected PE Ratio taking into account the company's forecast earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.

HSY PE Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PE Ratio19.3x
Fair PE Ratio21.8x

Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio: HSY is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (19.3x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Earnings Ratio (21.8x).

Analyst Price Targets

What is the analyst 12-month forecast and do we have any statistical confidence in the consensus price target?

The above table shows the analyst HSY forecast and predictions for the stock price in 12 month’s time.
DateShare PriceAverage 1Y Price TargetDispersionHighLow1Y Actual priceAnalysts
CurrentUS$169.00
US$184.53
+9.2%
9.6%US$222.00US$153.00n/a25
Dec ’25US$176.13
US$183.65
+4.3%
9.6%US$222.00US$153.00n/a25
Nov ’25US$179.26
US$195.32
+9.0%
8.6%US$232.00US$161.00n/a25
Oct ’25US$191.81
US$201.88
+5.2%
8.0%US$232.00US$163.00n/a24
Sep ’25US$193.06
US$203.00
+5.2%
7.2%US$232.00US$179.00n/a24
Aug ’25US$199.62
US$201.96
+1.2%
6.7%US$232.00US$179.00n/a22
Jul ’25US$182.45
US$206.92
+13.4%
7.3%US$239.00US$179.00n/a23
Jun ’25US$197.83
US$206.75
+4.5%
7.9%US$239.00US$170.00n/a24
May ’25US$193.70
US$206.08
+6.4%
7.9%US$238.00US$170.00n/a24
Apr ’25US$198.27
US$209.83
+5.8%
6.5%US$238.00US$183.00n/a24
Mar ’25US$188.05
US$210.37
+11.9%
6.9%US$238.00US$183.00n/a24
Feb ’25US$198.43
US$209.24
+5.4%
8.3%US$248.00US$180.00n/a25
Jan ’25US$186.44
US$212.04
+13.7%
8.3%US$248.00US$180.00n/a24
Dec ’24US$190.98
US$215.83
+13.0%
9.2%US$250.00US$180.00US$176.1323
Nov ’24US$187.85
US$219.65
+16.9%
9.8%US$253.00US$180.00US$179.2623
Oct ’24US$200.08
US$252.27
+26.1%
8.3%US$300.00US$196.00US$191.8122
Sep ’24US$213.85
US$260.15
+21.7%
8.3%US$300.00US$196.00US$193.0620
Aug ’24US$230.59
US$261.80
+13.5%
8.8%US$300.00US$192.00US$199.6220
Jul ’24US$249.70
US$272.90
+9.3%
8.6%US$310.00US$192.00US$182.4520
Jun ’24US$259.66
US$271.45
+4.5%
8.8%US$310.00US$192.00US$197.8320
May ’24US$276.35
US$269.45
-2.5%
9.5%US$310.00US$180.00US$193.7020
Apr ’24US$254.41
US$251.75
-1.0%
8.4%US$280.00US$180.00US$198.2720
Mar ’24US$236.65
US$247.24
+4.5%
9.6%US$280.00US$169.00US$188.0521
Feb ’24US$225.30
US$238.96
+6.1%
9.2%US$270.00US$169.00US$198.4321
Jan ’24US$231.57
US$240.58
+3.9%
9.0%US$270.00US$169.00US$186.4421
Dec ’23US$231.88
US$237.39
+2.4%
8.4%US$270.00US$169.00US$190.9821

Analyst Forecast: Target price is less than 20% higher than the current share price.

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2024/12/23 04:11
End of Day Share Price 2024/12/23 00:00
Earnings2024/09/29
Annual Earnings2023/12/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on .

Analyst Sources

The Hershey Company is covered by 44 analysts. 23 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
null nullArgus Research Company
Ishan MajumdarBaptista Research
Andrew LazarBarclays