Hershey Corporation’s Financial Analysis Hershey’s is a well established leader in North America for manufacturing chocolate and chocolate related products. In determining whether to invest in Hershey, their liquidity, solvency and profitability will be examined. In investigating Hershey’s financial reports identifying any short-term financial problems should be relatively simple. For 2009 the Hershey Corporation had a current ratio of 1.52, which indicates that Hershey was able to meet their 2009 near-term operating needs sufficiently. Knowing that a company is not having any problems paying their bills in a timely manner is definitely a huge positive. A working capital of $474,806 helps to confirm that Hershey’s had plenty of cash on hand to handle short-term obligations. Although their current cash debt coverage ratio is .98 and not above a 1, which indicates that they were unable to repay all of their debts within one year, their high level of inventory turnover shows that they have a consistent stream of incoming cash flows to remain in good standings with their debtors. The liquidity of the Hershey Corporation for 2009 would allow them to cover financial obligations in a timely manner with minimal cost to the corporation as a whole. Hershey’s debt-to-assets ratio was at a 79% in 2009, which means that majority of their assets were financed through equity. Looking from a creditor’s stand point, since their debt-to-assets ratio is below a 1 if creditors demanded repayment Hershey’s would be able to make repayment. Based on their TIE, Hershey earned 8.61 times its interest expense before taxes and some may determine that they need to invest more into projects to yield a greater return on investments. As opposed to the current cash debt coverage ratio for Hershey, their cash debt coverage ratio is 34%, which indicates that they may have some trouble