Hershey needs a scary-good Halloween after its Q3 report

Halloween is around the corner, my friends. I love this time of year. And you can bet Hershey (NYSE: HSY) does, too. Will the company sell a lot of candy to all those households who want to give some treats out? Let's hope so, because Hershey needs all the help it can get. It hasn't been growing too well, lately. (I'll be helping out by buying a bag of my favorite, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!)

The confectioner reported earnings on Thursday for the third quarter. Sales rose a modest 6% to roughly $1.5 billion. Adjusted earnings per diluted share came in at $0.64. That unfortunately represented a 6% decrease in the bottom line. Furthermore, if you're in the mood for more bad news, adjusted margins dropped across the board during the reporting period. And we can't look to an earnings beat to make things better. According to this article, Hershey managed to only equal analyst expectations, not beat them.

Yet, the stock is up well over 2% as of this writing. As the article pointed out, Hershey is doing okay in terms of market share and outlook. And I'll say this: long-term investors can look at the dividend yield on the stock and the brand equity behind the famous candy maker as positives. I just have to wonder how the stock is going to fare as the consumer continues to become affected by price increases at the supermarket. We all know that Hershey, along with other companies such as Kraft (NYSE: KFT) and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), have found it difficult to spare their consumers the sting of rising costs in a softening economy. Hershey's shares are currently near a 52-week low. My instinct at this time says they'll be going lower still. If you're into dollar-cost-averaging over a long period of time (which would be a good strategy vis a vis this company), then I'd say that you'd be fine here. However, I don't think Hershey will break through to record highs anytime soon.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.