Quick Read
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HSY held its quarterly dividend flat at $1.37 for five quarters, then raised it to $1.452 in February 2026, a level held for three consecutive quarters.
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Full-year 2025 net income cratered to $883 million from $2.22 billion, driven by record cocoa costs and roughly $165 million in tariff expenses.
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Full-year 2026 guidance targets EPS growth of 32 to 35 percent off 2025, and HSY trades at $173 versus an analyst target of $206, signaling an unpriced recovery.
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Most Hershey shareholders spent the last two years watching a yield number and missed the more important story hiding behind it. The quarterly dividend stopped growing. From the February 2024 ex-date through the November 2025 ex-date, Hershey (NYSE:HSY) held its quarterly payment flat at $1.37 per share for five consecutive quarterly cycles. Then, starting with the February 17, 2026 ex-date, the payment stepped up to $1.452 per share, a level that has now held for three consecutive quarters, including the September 15, 2026 payment investors just received.
A freeze differs from a cut, and that distinction matters. But a company that stops growing its dividend is choosing to protect cash, and boards do not do that when everything is running smoothly.
What the Freeze Actually Signaled
Hershey’s income statement during the freeze window tells the story the dividend was trying to warn about. Full-year 2025 net income came in at $883.3 million, down sharply from $2.22 billion in 2024. Operating income collapsed to $1.42 billion from $2.90 billion a year earlier. Adjusted EPS fell to $6.31, a decline of roughly 36% to 37%, pressured by record cocoa costs and $160 million to $170 million in tariff expenses.
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The single quarter that best captures the squeeze is Q2 2025: net income of just $62.7 million on revenue of $2.61 billion, with operating income compressed to $192.8 million. Against that backdrop, the annual dividend outlay was still climbing: total dividends paid rose to $1.085 billion in 2025 from $1.085 billion in 2024 and $889 million in 2023. Holding the per-share rate flat was how management kept that outlay from swallowing more of a shrinking earnings base.
