Hershey posts 1Q profit, results miss Wall Street estimates

Hershey Co. (HSY) on Thursday reported first-quarter profit of $244.7 million.

On a per-share basis, the Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company said it had net income of $1.10. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $1.09 per share.

The results missed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.15 per share.

The chocolate bar and candy maker posted revenue of $1.94 billion in the period, also missing Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.96 billion.

Hershey expects full-year earnings in the range of $4.30 to $4.38 per share.

Hershey shares have dropped slightly more than 5 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased slightly more than 2 percent. The stock has declined slightly more than 1 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap ) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HSY at http://www.zacks.com/ap/HSY

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Keywords: Hershey, Earnings Report