Hershey's Stock Pops As Q4 Earnings Beat Expectations—But Cocoa Prices Loom Over 2025 Outlook

The Hershey Company HSY shares are trading higher in the premarket session on Thursday.

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $2.69, beating the street view of $2.37. Quarterly sales of $2.89 billion (up 8.7% year over year) outpaced the analyst consensus estimate of $2.84 billion.

Organic, constant currency net sales grew by 9.0%. Factors like inventory timing benefits and higher net price realization drove this growth.

Hershey’s North America Confectionery segment net sales were $2.354.2 billion, up 6% year over year. North America Salty Snacks segment net sales were $278.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 35.9%.  Hershey’s International segment increased 9.8% year over year to $254.5 million.

Also Read: US Stocks Likely To Open Higher Ahead Of Amazon’s Earnings: ‘Buy The Dip’ Mentality Remains Prevalent, Says Analyst

Adjusted gross margin increased 60 basis points to 44.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Net price realization, higher sales volume, supply chain productivity, and a timing benefit related to the inventory valuation method more than offset higher commodity costs and negative sales mix.

Adjusted operating profit of $696.8 million increased 28.0% in the quarter under review, resulting in adjusted operating profit margin of 24.1%, an increase of 360 basis points.

“While we continue to expect the surge in cocoa prices to put significant pressure on 2025 earnings, we will focus on driving top-line and share momentum, executing our transformation and productivity programs, and positioning ourselves to deliver peer-leading performance over the long-term,” said Michele Buck, The Hershey Company President and Chief Executive Officer.

Dividend: The company announced quarterly dividends of $1.370 on the Common Stock and $1.245 on the Class B Common Stock. The dividends are payable March 14, 2025, to stockholders of record as of February 17, 2025.

Outlook: Hershey expects its FY25 adjusted EPS to range from $6.00 to $6.18, below the $7.37 estimate. The company expects net sales growth of at least 2%, driven primarily by net price realization, corresponding to sales of $11.426 billion, slightly above the $11.40 billion estimate.

Price Action: HSY shares are trading higher by 6.57% to $155.50 premarket at last check Thursday.

Read Next:

• Meta AI Models’ Clearly Behind’ DeepSeek, Says Analyst After Mark Zuckerberg Admits DeepSeek Did Some Novel Things ‘We’re Still Digesting’

Photo via Shutterstock.