Is the business good?
How good a business is HSY?
Hershey Company (The) earns 15% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
15%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 5.7 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 14%
Operating margin · Consumer Defensive median 9.0% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.76×
Cash conversion · 1.10× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Gross margin
- 35%
Gross margin
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 22% |
| FY2021 | 23% |
| FY2022 | 22% |
| FY2023 | 23% |
| FY2024 | 26% |
| FY2025 | 12% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 35%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 14%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 9.1%
- Free cash flow margin
- 16%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $12.0B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $1.93B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $1.09B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 15%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Consumer Defensive
Ranks #3 of 106 by Smart Score