Chocolate maker Hershey Co. posted a net profit of 63 cents a share on Tuesday, beating market expectations of 60 cents per share.

Net income of the company, which decided to drop its Cadbury aspirations after Cadbury accepted Kraft Food Inc.'s $18.7 billion offer, rose 54 per cent to $126.8 million (55 cents a share) as compared to $82.2 million (36 cents per share) in the year-ago period, Hershey said in a statement. Sales went up 2.2 per cent to $1.41 billion.

As per a leading analyst from research firm, "The rise in profit of the candy maker is mainly due to the fact that it raised prices of its products last year to deal with the rise in raw material prices globally."

Meanwhile, Hershey also gave a 7.6 per cent lift to its quarterly dividend on common stock. Now the holders of the stock as on February 25 will get a dividend of 32 cents a share payble on March 15.

Helped by the Q4 report card, the company's shares rallied to $37.46 in the initial trades at New York Stock Exchange composite trading.