Hershey Fourth-quarter Earnings Beat, Revenues Miss

Hershey Co. said it had net income of $213.4 billion, or 98 cents per share, in the fourth-quarter of 2015, up from $202.5 billion, or 91 cents per share, for the same period last year. The adjusted earnings per share were $1.08 against a FactSet consensus of $1.05. Sales for the quarter were down 5% to $1.91 billion versus $2.01 billion last year. The FactSet consensus was $1.97 billion. The company has approved an additional $500 million stock buyback program, to begin after the current program is complete. Hershey sees 2016 earnings per share between $4.18 and $4.23 up from 2015 earnings per share of $2.32, and revenue growth of 2% from $7.39 billion in 2015. Hershey shares aren't yet active in premarket trading, but are down 21.6% for the past 12 months compared with a 6% decline for the S&P 500.