Hershey Company (The) (HSY)
Forward P/E is 17.77x against a peer median of 12.45x, a ratio of 1.43x — above the fair range — with trailing P/E 22.35x and PEG 0.99. Latest-quarter revenue grew 6.6% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), only slightly ahead of the cluster pace, so the growth exception does not apply even though the PEG is low. Delivered demand check: the packaged foods, meats & agriculture group's median growth was 5.8% year over year — demand steady, and Hershey is growing only a little faster than that pace.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E compresses to about 14.3x or below (1.15x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth rises above 10% year over year for two quarters — far above the cluster pace — with the PEG staying at or below about 1.5. Move further from fair value if revenue growth falls below 0% year over year while the forward multiple stays above 17x.
Hershey makes chocolate and sweets that sell steadily. Its shares cost about 43% more than similar food companies, while its sales grew only a little faster than theirs. That extra price is not matched by extra growth, so the shares look overvalued.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Hershey Company (The) returned +10.84% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Hershey Company (The): -47.6% (2023-05-01 to 2025-02-04). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 17.77x against a peer median of 12.45x, a ratio of 1.43x — above the fair range — with trailing P/E 22.35x and PEG 0.99. Latest-quarter revenue grew 6.6% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), only slightly ahead of the cluster pace, so the growth exception does not apply even though the PEG is low. Delivered demand check: the packaged foods, meats & agriculture group's median growth was 5.8% year over year — demand steady, and Hershey is growing only a little faster than that pace. The company’s forward P/E is 17.8× against a peer median of 12.4×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the packaged foods, meats & agriculture group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 5.8% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady. Hershey grew 6.6%, only a little ahead of that pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +6.6% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hershey Company (The) (HSY) | $163.54 | 17.8× | 22.4× |
| HRL | $20.68 | 13.6× | 33.3× |
| MKC | $45.98 | 14.9× | 8.3× |
| SJM | $125.24 | 12.4× | 58.3× |
| GIS | $33.16 | 10.7× | — |
| BG | $101.10 | 9.7× | 19.7× |
| Peer median | 12.4× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-28 | $2.8B | 45.3% | $458M | — | $329M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-29 | $3.1B | 39.4% | $435M | — | $354M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $3.1B | 37.0% | $320M | — | $788M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-28 | $3.2B | 32.6% | $276M | — | $756M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-29 | $2.6B | 30.4% | $63M | — | $27M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-30 | $2.8B | 33.7% | $224M | — | $251M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $2.9B | 54.0% | $797M | — | $807M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-29 | $3.0B | 41.3% | $446M | — | $567M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $2.1B | 40.2% | $181M | — | $195M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $3.3B | 51.5% | $797M | — | $356M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $2.7B | 42.3% | $349M | — | $535M |
| Q/E Oct 2023 2023-10-01 | $3.0B | 44.9% | $519M | — | $298M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | HERSHEY CO |
| Chief executive | Kirk Tanner (source: https://www.thehersheycompany.com/en_us/home/about-us/the-company/leadership.html) |
| Sector | Consumer Staples — Packaged Foods & Meats — sells chocolate, candy and snacks |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $163.54 |
| Market value (market cap) | — — share price times shares outstanding of 0 (SEC filings; ) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $12.2B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $1.5B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $2.2B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +10.84% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -47.6% (2023-05-01 to 2025-02-04) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000047111.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000047111.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/HSY/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.