HSY changes
Pick any two versions below to diff them.
- Price
- $166.37 → $157.61(−5.3%)
- Discount
- 27.7% → 31.5%(+3.8 pts)
- Balance sheet
- Hershey funds itself with cash from operations and with unsecured fixed-rate notes that the parent company issues. It uses commercial paper for the summer peak in working capital. At June 28, 2026, debt was $5.6 billion. This was $5.1 billion of notes due from 2026 to 2050 and $264 million of commercial paper. It also included $157 million of foreign bank loans and $76 million of finance leases. Operating leases added about $313 million more. Cash was $791 million, mostly outside the United States. Thus net debt was about $4.8 billion, or about 1.8 times trailing EBITDA of about $2.7 billion. Trailing EBIT covered interest about 9 times. The only near-term maturity was $500 million of 2.300% notes due August 15, 2026. An undrawn $1.875 billion revolving credit facility to October 2030 backs the commercial paper. On June 17, 2026, Moody's affirmed Hershey at A1 with a stable outlook. Moody's expects leverage on its own measure to fall from the mid-2 times range to below 2 times over 12 to 18 months. It expects this as cocoa costs ease and margins recover. The debt does not limit Hershey. It can pay its dividend ($574 million in the first half of 2026) and keep modest buybacks. But a second large deal like LesserEvil would slow the fall in leverage. As of 2026-06-28.
- Checkpoints
- Oct 30, 2026 (estimate): Q3 2026 earnings: Halloween season volume and margin. Pending. Watch: A smaller volume decline, higher adjusted gross margin and the $8.36 to $8.52 EPS outlook held or raised pass; a deeper volume drop or a lower outlook fails. Feb 2027 (estimate): Full-year 2026 results and 2027 outlook. Pending. Watch: A 2027 outlook with double-digit EPS growth and stable volume passes; an outlook cut because of new cocoa costs or weak demand fails. Apr 2027 (estimate): Q1 2027 earnings: cocoa cost relief shows in margins. Pending. Watch: Gross margin up again as lower hedged cocoa costs arrive and volume flat or up passes; margin pressure from the September 2026 cocoa jump fails.