Sifting through countless of stocks in the Food Products industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in The J. M. Smucker Company or The Hershey Company because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company

The J. M. Smucker Company manufactures and markets branded food and beverage products worldwide. The company operates through five segments: U.S. Retail Coffee, U.S. Retail Frozen Handheld and Spreads, U.S. Retail Pet Foods, Sweet Baked Snacks, and Away From Home. It offers coffee, sweet baked goods, pet snacks, frozen handheld products, peanut butter, cat and dog food, fruit and specialty spreads, cookies, frozen sandwiches and snacks, hot beverages, portion control products, toppings and syrups, baking mixes and ingredients, and flour. The company provides its products under the Folgers, Café Bustelo, Dunkin’, Jif, Smucker’s, Uncrustables, Meow Mix, Milk-Bone, Pup-Peroni, Canine Carry Outs, Hostess, and 1850 brand names. It sells its products through direct sales and brokers to food retailers, club stores, discount and dollar stores, online retailers, pet specialty stores, distributors, drug stores, military commissaries, mass merchandisers, supermarket chains, national mass retailers, convenience stores, vending channels, and foodservice distributors and operators. The J. M. Smucker Company was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Orrville, Ohio.

The Hershey Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of confectionery products and pantry items in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: North America Confectionery, North America Salty Snacks, and International. The company offers chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products; gum and mint refreshment products, including mints, chewing gums, and bubble gums; protein bars; pantry items, such as baking ingredients, toppings, beverages, and sundae syrups; and snack items comprising spreads, bars, snack bites, mixes, popcorn, and pretzels. It provides its products primarily under the Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kisses, Jolly Rancher, Almond Joy, Brookside, barkTHINS, Cadbury, Good & Plenty, Heath, Kit Kat, Payday, Rolo, Twizzlers, Sour Strips, Whoppers, York, Ice Breakers, Breath Savers, Bubble Yum, Lily’s, SkinnyPop, Pirates Booty, Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels, and ONE Bar brands, as well as under the Pelon Pelo Rico, IO-IO, and Sofit brands. The company markets and sells its products to wholesale distributors, chain grocery stores, mass merchandisers, chain drug stores, vending companies, wholesale clubs, convenience stores, dollar stores, concessionaires, and department stores. It exports its products in approximately 65 countries worldwide. The Hershey Company was founded in 1894 and is based in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Latest Food Products and The J. M. Smucker Company, The Hershey Company Stock News

As of September 8, 2026, The J. M. Smucker Company had a $13.3 billion market capitalization, compared to the Food Products median of $1.7 million. The J. M. Smucker Company’s stock is up 26.7% in 2026, down 5.7% in the previous five trading days and up 10.8% in the past year.

Currently, The J. M. Smucker Company’s price-earnings ratio is 58.0. The J. M. Smucker Company’s trailing 12-month revenue is $9.2 billion with a 2.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 5.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $10.689 per share for the current fiscal year. The J. M. Smucker Company currently has a 3.6% dividend yield.

As of September 8, 2026, The Hershey Company had a $34.8 billion market cap, putting it in the 91st percentile of all stocks. The Hershey Company’s stock is down 5.9% in 2026, down 2.7% in the previous five trading days and down 6.58% in the past year.

Currently, The Hershey Company’s price-earnings ratio is 23.7. The Hershey Company’s trailing 12-month revenue is $12.2 billion with a 12.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 6.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $8.490 per share for the current fiscal year. The Hershey Company currently has a 3.4% dividend yield.

How We Compare The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
The J. M. Smucker Company	SJM	C
The Hershey Company	HSY	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

The J. M. Smucker Company has a Value Score of 53, which is Average. The Hershey Company has a Value Score of 31, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither The J. M. Smucker Company or The Hershey Company has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if The J. M. Smucker Company or The Hershey Company is the better investment when it comes to value.

The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
The J. M. Smucker Company	SJM	C
The Hershey Company	HSY	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

The J. M. Smucker Company has a Growth Score of 56, which is Average. The Hershey Company has a Growth Score of 100, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: The Hershey Company

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, The Hershey Company has a more attractive growth grade than The J. M. Smucker Company. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, The Hershey Company could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
The J. M. Smucker Company	SJM	A
The Hershey Company	HSY	A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

The J. M. Smucker Company has a Quality Score of 88, which is Very Strong. The Hershey Company has a Quality Score of 92, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Quality Grade breakdown above, both The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s overall quality, you will need to conduct further research into both companies to see if they are a good fit for your portfolio. As a good rule of thumb, you should always analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before choosing a company to invest in.

Other The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company Grades

In addition to Value, Quality and Growth, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Estimate Revisions.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, The J. M. Smucker Company or The Hershey Company Stock?

Overall, The J. M. Smucker Company stock has a Value Score of 53, Growth Score of 56 and Quality Score of 88.

The Hershey Company stock has a Value Score of 31, Growth Score of 100 and Quality Score of 92.

Comparing The J. M. Smucker Company and The Hershey Company’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.