Piper Sandler lowered the firm’s price target on Hershey (HSY) to $165 from $179 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm says it is taking a more conservative stance on its assumed cocoa costs, given 40-year low stocks to grind ratios, which is a bullish indicator for cocoa costs. While Piper acknowledges making assumptions about cocoa costs is tricky, especially with recent volatility, it now expects elevated costs to remain sticky given the loss of trees from disease and the current stocks to grind ratio.
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