5 Best Food Stocks To Buy Now

03. The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 43

Established in 1894, The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) is based in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY), together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells pantry items and confectionary goods both domestically in the U.S. and abroad. The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) is the top U.S. confectionery maker and controls around 46% of the domestic chocolate market. Over the past 85 years, the company’s product line has evolved to include 100 brands, including Reese’s, Kit Kat, Kisses, and Ice Breakers. Hershey’s goods are offered in around 80 countries, although only a high-single-digit percentage of sales come from international markets, such as Brazil, India, and Mexico.

The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) is a strong dividend stock, with 12 years of consistent dividend growth. It has a payout ratio of 44.38% and a forward dividend yield of 1.88%. On September 14, Cowen analyst Brian Holland initiated coverage of The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) with a Market Perform rating and a $238 price target.

As of June 2022, out of the 895 hedge funds polled by Insider Monkey, 43 had held a stake in The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY). Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies is the largest investor in our database of The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY). It owns 3.6 million shares that are worth $789 million.