Hershey reported higher third-quarter sales and sharply higher earnings, while lifting its full-year sales and profit-growth outlook. The update points to modest underlying sales growth: reported revenue growth includes a contribution from the LesserEvil acquisition, while organic, constant-currency sales rose less than 1%.
The company also raised its adjusted earnings forecast, which includes $0.25 per share in tariff refunds received during the second and third quarters. Its outlook does not include any additional potential tariff refunds.
Key details
- Third-quarter sales: Net sales were $3.28 billion, up 3.0% from a year earlier. Organic, constant-currency sales increased 0.8%.
- Third-quarter earnings: Net income rose 111.8% to $580.8 million, or $2.88 per diluted share. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 103.1% to $2.64.
- First nine months: Sales totaled $9.17 billion, up 6.6%, while organic, constant-currency sales rose 4.0%. Net income increased 162.5% to $1.47 billion, or $7.27 per diluted share; adjusted diluted earnings per share rose 49.1% to $6.89.
- Full-year sales outlook: Hershey now expects reported net sales growth of about 5%, versus its previous range of 4.5% to 5%. It expects organic sales growth of about 3%, compared with its prior forecast of 3% to 3.5%.
- Acquisition and currency effects: The reported-sales outlook includes an approximately 2-percentage-point contribution from the 2025 LesserEvil acquisition. Foreign exchange is expected to provide a slight benefit to full-year sales growth.
- Full-year earnings outlook: The company raised its forecast for reported earnings-per-share growth to 84%–90%, from 82%–89%. Its adjusted earnings-per-share growth forecast is now 36%–38.5%, up from 32.5%–35%.
- Tariff refunds: The adjusted earnings outlook includes about $0.22 per share from refunds received in the third quarter and $0.03 per share from refunds received in the second quarter. The outlook excludes potential future refunds.
- Tax rate: Hershey expects a reported and adjusted effective tax rate of approximately 25%.
Plain-English implications
The higher reported-sales forecast reflects the LesserEvil acquisition as well as a slight expected currency benefit; Hershey’s organic sales-growth forecast, by contrast, is now about 3%. The higher adjusted earnings outlook includes tariff refunds already received, so it is not based solely on operating results.