Hershey Co's

The company expects full-year sales to rise to at least 6 percent, up from an earlier range of 3 percent to 5 percent.

Hershey also forecast adjusted earnings per share to rise by low-to-mid-teen percentage points. Earlier it had forecast an increase of between 6 percent and 8 percent.

Hershey, which faces stepped-up competition after Kraft Foods Inc bought Cadbury earlier this year, said profit rose 94.2 percent, hitting $147.4 million, or 64 cents a share, in the first quarter, compared with $75.9 million, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts were expecting 47 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 13.9 percent to $1.41 billion in the first quarter, which ended April 4.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; additional reporting by Brad Dorfman; Editing by Derek Caney)