Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The portfolio had a 5.7% gain in the first quarter compared to an 8.2% return in the Russell Midcap Value Index. The Strategy underperformed in Financials and Industrials due to a low hit rate on stock selection. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund featured stocks like The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) in the Q1 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) engages in the manufacture and sale of confectionery products and pantry items. On April 12, 2024, The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) stock closed at $185.80 per share. One-month return of The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) was -5.71%, and its shares lost 28.27% of their value over the last 52 weeks. The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) has a market capitalization of $37.943 billion.
Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Consumer Staples. Another new position is The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY), the leading chocolate confectionary company in North America with a growing presence in salty snacks and non-chocolate confections.
The maker of such popular brands as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Cadbury, and Jolly Rancher has historically traded at a premium to its consumer staples peers. But in an environment where consumer finances are stressed and input costs are climbing, that premium has disappeared. The stock is down 35% from its 2023 peak due to volume headwinds and margin pressures brought about by rising prices.
We believe Hershey simply needs to demonstrate to investors that these headwinds are cyclical and temporary in nature, while once again showcasing its ability to balance superior profitability with modest growth and stable market share. Cocoa prices, a key input for HSY, have seen a nearly unprecedented price spike on supply disruptions in West Africa (where the majority of global supply originates). While we cannot predict when cocoa prices deflate, we are confident HSY and its largest competitors will be slow to reverse price increases required to recoup the input cost squeeze. Encouragingly, after being hampered by supply chain constraints in the post-COVID-19 environment, HSY has a greater innovation slate and more capacity in place to grow in the coming years. The stock, meanwhile, now trades near historic lows relative to other blue chip consumer staples, the consumer staples sector as a whole, and the broad market.”
A close-up of hands deftly moulding a bar of chocolate.
The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) was held by 46 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 42 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We previously discussed The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) in another article, where we shared biggest snack companies in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
