Hershey Falls as Investors Weigh Guidance Quality, Consumer Weakness, and Analyst Resets

The Hershey Company (HSY) is down 4.0% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.

Analysis: The most likely driver is a negative read-through from Hershey’s latest quarterly update: even though profit guidance improved, investors appeared focused on softer demand signals, pressure in convenience channels, and questions about how durable earnings gains will be. The selloff also may have been amplified by analyst target cuts and a downgrade that followed the results.

Details:

Hershey’s late-October earnings release included stronger third-quarter results and a higher full-year adjusted earnings outlook, but the market reaction suggested investors were looking past the near-term beat.

Management flagged a more cautious consumer environment, including weakness in convenience-store trends, which can raise concern about volume growth and pricing power.

The company’s quarterly filing showed its international segment posted a wider loss, reflecting higher commodity and manufacturing costs along with lower volumes.

This could also be because several Wall Street firms reduced price targets after the report, and one firm moved its rating from Buy to Hold, signaling less upside after the recent rebound.

Sources:

SEC, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga

Disclaimer: This price movement analysis was generated with the help of AI. Please double-check the information provided for mistakes.

$HSY Insider Trading Activity

$HSY insiders have traded $HSY stock on the open market 566 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 566 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $HSY stock by insiders over the last 6 months:

TRUST CO TRUSTEE IN TRUST FOR MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL HERSHEY has made 0 purchases and 561 sales selling 1,170,000 shares for an estimated $206,435,834.
STEVEN E VOSKUIL (SVP, Chief Financial Officer) has made 0 purchases and 3 sales selling 3,950 shares for an estimated $686,145.
JENNIFER MCCALMAN (VP, Chief Accounting Officer) sold 710 shares for an estimated $128,353
CORDEL ROBBIN-COKER sold 124 shares for an estimated $22,365

To track insider transactions, check out Quiver Quantitative's insider trading dashboard. You can access data on insider stock transactions through the Quiver Quantitative API insider transaction endpoint.

$HSY Hedge Fund Activity

We have seen 614 institutional investors add shares of $HSY stock to their portfolio, and 749 decrease their positions in their most recent quarter.

Here are some of the largest recent moves:

SIXTH STREET PARTNERS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, L.P. added 4,760,502 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $835,230,075
GQG PARTNERS LLC added 2,766,786 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $485,432,603
TWO SIGMA INVESTMENTS, LP removed 1,930,042 shares (-97.7%) from their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $338,625,868
MORGAN STANLEY added 1,704,037 shares (+43.2%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $298,973,291
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO added 1,651,100 shares (+inf%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $289,685,495
NORDEA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT AB added 1,238,958 shares (+120.6%) to their portfolio in Q3 2026, for an estimated $195,272,170
FEDERATED HERMES, INC. added 988,763 shares (+68003.0%) to their portfolio in Q2 2026, for an estimated $173,478,468

To track hedge funds' stock portfolios, check out Quiver Quantitative's institutional holdings dashboard. You can access data on hedge funds moves and 13F filings through the Quiver Quantitative API 13F endpoint.

$HSY Congressional Stock Trading

Members of Congress have traded $HSY stock 1 times in the past 6 months. Of those trades, 0 have been purchases and 1 have been sales.

Here’s a breakdown of recent trading of $HSY stock by members of Congress over the last 6 months:

REPRESENTATIVE DAN NEWHOUSE sold up to $15,000 on 07/10.

To track congressional stock trading, check out Quiver Quantitative's congressional trading dashboard. You can access data on congressional stock trades through the Quiver Quantitative API Congress trades endpoint.

$HSY Price Targets

Multiple analysts have issued price targets for $HSY recently. We have seen 4 analysts offer price targets for $HSY in the last 6 months, with a median target of $200.0.

Here are some recent targets:

Michael Lavery from Piper Sandler set a target price of $200.0 on 07/09/2026
Peter Galbo from B of A Securities set a target price of $200.0 on 06/25/2026
David Palmer from Evercore ISI Group set a target price of $255.0 on 05/27/2026
John Baumgartner from Mizuho set a target price of $185.0 on 05/20/2026

This article is not financial advice. See Quiver Quantitative's disclaimers for more information. Note that there may be inaccuracies due to mistakes in ticker-mapping, and other anomalies.