Hershey reinstates full-year outlook after strong third-quarter sales

(Reuters) – Hershey Co on Friday beat quarterly profit and sales estimates and reinstated its full-year outlook boosted by strong Halloween sales and demand for chocolate chips and cocoa powder from people taking up baking while stuck at home due to virus-driven lockdowns.

The company said its U.S. retail sales rose 6.6% in the quarter to Oct. 4, driven by strong sales of Hershey’s chocolate brands, which increased 9.8%, and baking items including peanut butter, syrup, chips and cocoa, which rose 15.7%.

Demand was also boosted by kids and their parents who bought more Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups online at a time social distancing restrictions meant fewer trips to grocery stores and spending Halloween at home instead of going trick-or-treating.

Net sales rose 4% to $2.22 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 27, beating analysts expectations of $2.16 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Excluding items, the company earned $1.86 per share, handily beating expectations of $1.72, per Refinitiv data.

The company also reinstated its full-year outlook that it had pulled in April saying it expects full-year net sales to rise about 1% and adjusted earnings per share to rise between 7% to 8%.

The adjusted earnings forecast translates to $6.18 to $6.24 per share, above estimates of $6.03 per share.

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)