Simple Things, Done Right, Will Make You Rich

Why We Love Investing In The Hershey Company

This is Porter’s Daily Journal, a free e-letter from Porter & Co. that provides unfiltered insights on markets, the economy, and life to help readers become better investors. It includes weekday editions and two weekend editions… and is free to all subscribers.

Table of Contents

• Why We Love Investing In The Hershey Company

• LIMITED TIME ONLY: Backdoor Exposure To SpaceX 

• Three Things To Know Before We Go…

• And One More Thing… Wingstop (WING) Flying High

• Monday’s Poll Results

I’d bet almost everyone reading this email has heard me talk about The Hershey Company (HSY) before.

Just like you’ve heard me “preaching” about property-and-casualty insurance. And the “irreplaceables”: Philip Morris International (PM), Deere & Co. (DE), and Domino’s Pizza (DPZ). (You can add Coke (KO) and McDonald’s (MCD) to the list too. We just haven’t had good opportunities yet to put them into my Big Secret On Wall Street portfolio. I did put them in Porter’s Permanent Portfolio, because it is hedged.)

Here’s the ironic part. These recommendations, without question, will end up being the most valuable ideas I ever give you. But guess what? Virtually all of you will completely ignore this advice. If the past is prologue, I’ll get dozens of emails about this Journal tonight, with everyone complaining about wasting their time writing about Hershey again.

The critics will complain: who wants to invest in a stock that everyone already knows about, that has very consistent earnings growth, and that can’t go up more than about 20% or 30% even in its best year? Why invest in stocks like Hershey when you can buy Bitcoin… or Coinbase… or the latest new technological widget, whose shares could (and sometimes do) rocket up 200% or 300%?

I love all my subscribers. You are wonderful people – and extremely intelligent. Your children are even smarter. And I have never seen such a beauty as your wife.

I am not looking my “gift horse” in the mouth. I’m just trying to lead that horse to water.

The one thing I’ve learned, for certain, about investing is that it’s woefully difficult to beat the after-tax returns you’ll earn if you can simply learn to buy Hershey at the correct price.

I’ve been recommending Hershey stock at below 15x trailing earnings consistently since late 2007.

That strategy has produced annualized gains of around 15%. That might not seem like much, but over 20 years, it adds up. And it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to beat. I respectfully doubt more than 1-in-10 of you have produced annual returns higher than that in your truly passive investments over the last 20 years.

But that’s not all.