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The Hershey Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on October 24, 1927 as a successor to a business founded in 1894 by Milton S. In this report, the terms Hershey, Company, we, us or our mean The Hershey Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries and entities in which it has a controlling financial interest, unless the context indicates otherwise.
$170.97
$0.45 (-0.26%)
Live · 05:21 PM
12.33% operating margin is respectable but not wide. ROIC at 10.74%. Suggests the business covers its cost of capital, but doesn't point to a wide moat.
Revenue grew 4.4%, steady but not accelerating. Margins contracted 13.5pp, which offsets some of the top-line progress.
At 32x earnings, the current multiple leaves limited room for execution misses or growth deceleration. ROIC dropped from 27.08% to 10.74%, capital efficiency is deteriorating.
31.8x earnings, 18.1x FCF. Not cheap, the quality is already reflected in the price. Upside from here requires either margin expansion or growth re-acceleration, not just continuation.
Based on TTM earnings · Diluted shares
Profitability & Returns
Revenue (TTM)
$11.99B
▲ +4.4% YoY
Net Income (TTM)
$1.09B
▼ -60.2% YoY
Op. Margin
14.29%
▼ -13.5pp YoY
ROIC
12.64%
▼ -16.3pp YoY
Cash Flow & Balance Sheet
FCF (TTM)
$1.93B
▼ -5.3% YoY
Op. Cash Flow (TTM)
$2.35B
▼ -10.0% YoY
Net Debt
$4.88B
Cash & Equiv.
$877M
5Y CAGR: +7.5%
5Y CAGR: +7.7%
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At a P/E of 31.8 and a price-to-free-cash-flow of 18.1, Hershey (HSY) trades above a two-stage DCF intrinsic value of about $159.72 per share, so at $170.97 the stock looks overvalued (6.6% above estimated intrinsic value). A high multiple is not the same as overvalued: fast-growing, high-quality businesses can deserve a premium. See the general approach in how to tell if a stock is overvalued.
On quality, Hershey scores 39/100 on Intrinsiqq's quality scorecard (a lower-quality business on these measures), weighing growth, margins, returns on capital, share count, and balance-sheet strength. It currently yields about 3.2%; see dividend safety for coverage and history. All figures are computed from SEC filings; read the full methodology. This is analysis, not investment advice.
Intrinsiqq's two-stage DCF estimates an intrinsic value of about $159.72 per share for HSY, projecting its recent free cash flow forward with a growth rate that fades toward a long-run rate and discounting it back to today. Applying a 25% margin of safety gives a more conservative fair-value entry around $119.79. At today's $170.97, that puts the stock about 6.6% above estimated intrinsic value. The result is sensitive to the growth and discount-rate inputs, so it is best to run conservative, base and optimistic cases. You can adjust all of them yourself with the sliders on the DCF tab.
Hershey scores 39 out of 100 on Intrinsiqq's quality score, a weighted blend of 8 metrics each scored 0 to 100, which makes it a lower-quality business on these measures. Recent fundamentals include a 14.3% operating margin and a 12.6% return on invested capital. The score weighs revenue and free-cash-flow growth, operating margins, return on invested capital, share-count change, and balance-sheet strength, all computed from SEC filings, not opinion. Because valuation only means something relative to quality, the full metric-by-metric breakdown is on the quality scorecard.
Yes, Hershey pays a regular dividend of about $5.40 per share per year (typically in quarterly installments), a yield of roughly 3.2% at the current price. That is a payout ratio of about 100.7% of earnings, so the dividend is stretched at this level. Hershey has grown the dividend at roughly 12.2% a year over the past few years. A low headline yield is not the same as a weak dividend: what matters is how well earnings and free cash flow cover the payout and whether it is growing, not the percentage alone. For HSY's full payout history, growth streak and dividend-safety score, see the dividends tab.
That depends on valuation and quality together, not either alone. HSY currently trades above its estimated intrinsic value and scores 39/100 on quality (lower-quality). It also yields about 3.2%. A cheap price is only a bargain if the business is durable, and a premium can be justified by genuine quality, so the two questions, "is it cheap?" and "is it good?", only make sense side by side. Read the valuation against the quality scorecard, run the DCF on your own assumptions, and decide for yourself. This is analysis from SEC filings, not investment advice.