(Reuters) -Hershey raised its full-year adjusted profit forecast on Thursday, bolstered by price increases for the Reese’s peanut-butter cups maker’s chocolates and candy.
Big names in the packaged food industry, including Kellogg, Coca-Cola Co and Hershey, have hiked product prices multiple times over the past year to counter a jump in costs of everything from ingredients to transportation caused by supply chain snags that were compounded by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Hershey has benefited from the price increases, boosting the chocolatier’s bottom-line and margins, but it also saw a 2.7% decline in volumes.
The Pennsylvania-based company now expects full-year adjusted profit per share to rise 11% to 12%, compared with its prior forecast of about 11% growth.
Excluding items, it earned $2.01 per share for the quarter, above estimates of $1.91 per share.
Net income attributable to the company for the quarter ended July 2 rose to $407 million, or $1.98 per share, from $315.6 million, or $1.53 per share, a year earlier.
Shares of the 129-year-old company rose 1% before the bell.
Net sales rose to $2.49 billion in the second quarter from $2.37 billion a year earlier, falling short of analyst expectations of $2.50 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Hershey reaffirmed its previous forecast of approximately 8% net sales growth in 2023.
(Reporting by Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
