Earnings from Hershey and ICE

We had two more earnings reports this morning. First up, Hershey (HSY) said it made $1.47 per share for Q2. That’s an increase of 12.2% over last year’s Q2. It beat Wall Street’s consensus by three cents per share. Consolidated net sales were up 16.5% to $1.9894 billion in Q2.

CEO Michele Buck said, “This strong consumer demand, coupled with our executional excellence, healthy balance sheet and relentless focus on delivering against our strategic initiatives in the quarter enabled us to support and expand our portfolio, invest in our people and deliver strong shareholder returns. As trends continue to fluctuate, we are confident in our ability to adapt with our consumers and retailers and continue meeting their needs in the future.”

Hershey raised its full-year sales growth forecast to a range of 6% to 8%. That’s up from the previous range of 4% to 6%. The problem is that a lot of that will be eaten up by higher supply chain costs. As a result, Hershey is reiterating its previous full-year earnings range of $6.79 to $6.92 per share. That’s an increase of 8% to 10% over 2020.

The shares are up about 0.7% this morning.

Also this morning, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) reported Q2 earnings of $1.16 per share. That was one penny below expectations.

CFO Warren Gardiner said, “In the second quarter, we once again grew revenues, operating income, earnings and cash flow. Our performance is a testament to the power of our diverse business model, which, through an array of macroeconomic environments, continues to deliver consistent and compounding growth for our stockholders.”

Don’t let the earnings miss fool you – ICE is doing very well. Q2 revenues were up 22% to $1.7 billion. Adjusted operating margin is running at 56%. The Ellie Mae deal seems to be paying off quite nicely. In April, ICE sold its stake in Coinbase for more than $1.2 billion.

ICE provides financial guidance for just about everything except EPS:

ICE’s third quarter 2021 total recurring revenues are expected to be in a range of $870 million to $885 million.

ICE’s third quarter 2021 GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in a range of $930 million to $940 million and adjusted operating expenses are expected to be in a range of $770 million to $780 million and include $55 million related to Bakkt.

ICE’s full year 2021 GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in a range of $3.610 billion to $3.640 billion and adjusted operating expenses are expected to be in a range of $2.950 billion to $2.980 billion to include third quarter Bakkt expense of $55 million.

ICE’s third quarter 2021 GAAP non-operating expense is expected to be in the range of $110 million to $115 million and adjusted non-operating expense is expected to be in the range of $100 million to $105 million.

ICE’s full year 2021 capital expenditures are expected to be in a range of $430 million to $450 million.

ICE’s diluted share count for the third quarter is expected to be in the range of 563 million to 569 million weighted average shares outstanding.

Posted by on July 29th, 2021 at 10:28 am


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