5 Best Food Stocks to Buy Now

3. The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY)

Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders: 44

The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) is well known for its collection of chocolate products and confectionaries, though the company also sells pantry items like baking ingredients, toppings, and spreads, as well as gums, mints, and meat snacks.

The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) shares have been one of the better performers on the market this year, gaining 15%. The latest surge followed the release of the company’s Q2 results, which showed sales jumped by 19.3% year-over-year to $2.37 billion while earnings shot up by 22% to $1.80 per share. Hershey used the windfall to ratchet up its quarterly dividend payments by 15% to $1.036, giving the shares a yield of 1.88%.

Hedge funds have very gradually grown more bullish on The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) over the years, with the stock tying its all-time ownership among hedge funds during Q2. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies owns a 3.67 million share stake in HSY worth $790 million as of June 30.