Hershey Co. (NYSE:HSY) saw its latest quarterly earnings and revenue beat forecasts despite retail industry challenges, with the chocolate maker also reaffirming its full-year outlook.
The NYSE-listed firm saw its second-quarter earnings rise to US$203.5mln, or 95 US cents per share, up from US$146.0mln, or 68 US cents per share a year earlier.
The group’s adjusted earnings per share of US$1.09, beat the consensus forecast for 90 US cents, as second quarter revenue rose to US$1.66mln, up from US$1.64mln a year ago, also above the consensus estimates of US$1.65mln.
The company raised its quarterly dividend by 6% to about 66 US cents for its common stock and about 60 US cents for its class B stock.
Hershey said it expects the challenging retail environment to cut its full-year 2017 net sales growth to around 1%, down from a previous guidance of 2% to 3%.
However, the firm said this will result in "no change" to its full-year outlook because of an increase in adjusted gross margin, leading it to reaffirming its adjusted earnings per share guidance of US$4.72 to US$4.81.
In pre-market trading in New York, Hershey shares were up 2.3% to US$107.70.