J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 659,800 shares, a growth of 12.3% from the September 15th total of 587,600 shares. Approximately 4.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 83,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Gerald B. Shreiber sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, August 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.95, for a total transaction of $3,359,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other J&J Snack Foods news, VP Mary Lou Kehoe sold 1,500 shares of J&J Snack Foods stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.59, for a total transaction of $254,385.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 742 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,835.78. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Gerald B. Shreiber sold 20,000 shares of J&J Snack Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, August 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.95, for a total value of $3,359,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 22.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of JJSF. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in J&J Snack Foods by 19.4% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 82,401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,912,000 after purchasing an additional 13,382 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of J&J Snack Foods in the 1st quarter worth $3,197,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its holdings in J&J Snack Foods by 11.9% in the first quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 217,553 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,228,000 after acquiring an additional 23,196 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in J&J Snack Foods by 4.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,636,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,544,000 after acquiring an additional 71,378 shares during the period. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in J&J Snack Foods during the first quarter worth about $8,909,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.04% of the company’s stock.

J&J Snack Foods Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:JJSF traded up $1.73 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $170.10. The stock had a trading volume of 4,576 shares, compared to its average volume of 88,271. J&J Snack Foods has a fifty-two week low of $133.23 and a fifty-two week high of $176.38. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $168.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $161.21. The stock has a market cap of $3.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.92 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

J&J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The company reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $439.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $440.92 million. J&J Snack Foods had a return on equity of 10.70% and a net margin of 5.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.92 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that J&J Snack Foods will post 5.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

J&J Snack Foods Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th were issued a $0.78 dividend. This is a boost from J&J Snack Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. J&J Snack Foods’s payout ratio is 70.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of J&J Snack Foods in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th.

About J&J Snack Foods

J&J Snack Foods Corp. manufactures, markets, and distributes nutritional snack foods and beverages to the food service and retail supermarket industries in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Food Service, Retail Supermarkets, and Frozen Beverages. It offers soft pretzels under the SUPERPRETZEL, SUPERPRETZEL BAVARIAN, NEW YORK PRETZEL, BAVARIAN BAKERY, and BRAUHAUS brands, as well as under the private labels; frozen novelty under the DIPPIN'DOTS, LUIGI'S, WHOLE FRUIT, DOGSTERS, PHILLY SWIRL, ICEE, and MINUTE MAID brands; churros under the HOLA! and CALIFORNIA CHURROS brands; and handheld products under the SUPREME STUFFERS and SWEET STUFFERS brands.