Hershey price target lowered to $177 from $183 at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley analyst Megan Alexander Clapp lowered the firm’s price target on Hershey (HSY) to $177 from $183 and keeps an Equal Weight rating on the shares. Heading into Q1 earnings, the firm is lowering organic sales growth estimates across its packaged food coverage to reflect persistently weak scanner data, the analyst tells investors in a preview for the group. For Hershey in particular, the analyst sees Q1 sales and EPS risk, but adds that this is largely a function of consensus being too high on international/salty snacks net sales growth and too low on the tax rate.