HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) _ Hershey Co. (HSY) on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $533.5 million.

The Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company said it had profit of $2.57 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to $2.53 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.10 per share.

The chocolate bar and candy maker posted revenue of $2.67 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.47 billion.

Hershey expects full-year earnings in the range of $7.91 to $8.05 per share.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HSY at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HSY

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