(Bloomberg) — Hershey Co. posted first-quarter sales and profit that beat Wall Street expectations, helped by higher prices.
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The Pennsylvania-based maker of Hershey’s chocolates and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups reported organic revenue growth of 7.9% that topped analysts’ expectations. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.35 also beat the average of analyst estimates.
The results show Hershey benefiting from higher prices, after historically high cocoa costs have started to decline. Cocoa futures have fallen recently, following years of rising chocolate costs that caused consumers to buy less and candy companies to change their recipes.
“Consumer behavior remained really steady,” Chief Executive Officer Kirk Tanner said on a call with analysts Thursday.
Despite the positive quarter, Hershey maintained its 2026 outlook, which weighed on its shares. The company’s stock fell 2% at 10:05 a.m. It had gained about 4% this year, compared with a similar increase in the S&P 500 Index.
Hershey executives said the war with Iran hadn’t altered their outlook, but that they were monitoring the situation. A prolonged conflict could start to put more pressure on costs including packaging, they said.
Tanner said the company had only seen a “mild” impact from new curbs some states are putting into place in their food aid programs to limit the sales of soda and, in some places, candy.
“Now, where implemented, we do see considerable consumer confusion,” Tanner said, referring to questions over which products can be bought with federal food-aid benefits. “It’s possible that that would improve over time.”
Growing use of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs hasn’t caused users to stop buying chocolate and candy, Tanner said, and the company saw it help boost sales of gum and mints.
(Updates shares and with CEO comments.)
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