On Friday, The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) released a strong third-quarter report. The confectionary and salty-snack maker's revenue and earnings beat Wall Street's expectations, and management raised full-year guidance for the top and bottom lines.

In the third quarter, Hershey's revenue grew 16% year over year to $2.73 billion, topping the $2.62 billion analyst consensus estimate. Growth was broad-based across its segments, which include North America confectionary, international, and North America salty snacks, with the latter being the fastest grower.

Adjusted for one-time items, operating profit rose 9.3% year over year. Adjusted net income landed at $447.1 million, or $2.17 per share, up 3.3%. While bottom-line growth was modest, there were good reasons for it, and the result still easily exceeded the adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.10 that Wall Street had expected.

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Source Fool.com