No. of Recommendations: 8
Fresh lows. Closed at $168.67, $168 after market. (versus peak over $275 last year)
Previously I thought of it as "a good solid modest-growth share", a good place to leave some money.
Now I think it may actually be cheap enough to offer a good return in the next few years.
For whatever it's worth, Value Line's 3-5 year price target range is $240-290. This is far from a reliable forecast, but for a sense of scale if it were to happen: the average of the six outcomes (2 price target extremes and 3/4/5 year outlooks) is 12.6%/year price return, plus dividends. Yield on current price is 3.19%.
Or, I could still be wrong : )
Cocoa trees have to be planted somewhere with sufficiently reliable weather, and somebody is going to have to be paid enough to grow the trees and pick the cocoa pods. If those problems can be solved acceptably well, I think Hershey shareholders should do nicely. Even if they aren't solved very well I think Hershey the business will do OK, but the share price may continue to languish.
Jim