Legal & General Group Plc Purchases New Holdings in J & J Snack Foods Corp. $JJSF

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in J & J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 35,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,612,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in J & J Snack Foods by 485.1% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of J & J Snack Foods by 1,133.3% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 333 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 306 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc grew its holdings in shares of J & J Snack Foods by 1,450.0% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of J & J Snack Foods by 902.9% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in J & J Snack Foods by 58.4% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 149 shares during the period. 76.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on JJSF shares. Benchmark decreased their price objective on J & J Snack Foods from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of J & J Snack Foods in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of J & J Snack Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $81.00 to $101.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $110.50.

J & J Snack Foods Trading Down 2.2%

J & J Snack Foods stock opened at $84.11 on Friday. J & J Snack Foods Corp. has a 12 month low of $68.87 and a 12 month high of $110.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.35 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $80.29.

J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $425.96 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.65 million. J & J Snack Foods had a return on equity of 8.93% and a net margin of 3.23%.J & J Snack Foods’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.00 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that J & J Snack Foods Corp. will post 3.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

J & J Snack Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. J & J Snack Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 123.08%.

J & J Snack Foods Profile

J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ: JJSF) is a U.S.-based manufacturer and distributor of branded snack foods and frozen beverages. Headquartered in Pennsauken, New Jersey, the company develops, produces and markets a broad array of proprietary and licensed products for retail, concession and foodservice customers. Its offerings span soft pretzels, frozen novelties, real Italian ice, churros and packaged beverages under well-known names such as ICEE, SuperPretzel, Luigi’s and ChurroMan.

Founded in 1971 by Gerald B.