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

J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in 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. Currently, 4.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 83,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.9 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Mary Lou Kehoe sold 1,500 shares of the 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 sale, the vice president now owns 742 shares in the company, valued at $125,835.78. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, VP Mary Lou Kehoe sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.59, for a total transaction of $254,385.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 742 shares in the company, valued at $125,835.78. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Gerald B. Shreiber sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Saturday, August 31st. The shares were 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 owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in J&J Snack Foods by 19.4% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 82,401 shares of the company's stock worth $11,912,000 after acquiring an additional 13,382 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of J&J Snack Foods in the 1st quarter valued at $3,197,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC raised its stake in J&J Snack Foods by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 217,553 shares of the company's stock worth $31,228,000 after buying an additional 23,196 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 worth $236,544,000 after acquiring an additional 71,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in J&J Snack Foods in the first quarter valued at about $8,909,000. 76.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

J&J Snack Foods Trading Up 0.3 %

JJSF stock traded up $0.56 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $168.37. The company had a trading volume of 63,320 shares, compared to its average volume of 88,704. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $168.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $161.04. J&J Snack Foods has a 12 month low of $133.23 and a 12 month high of $176.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.92 and a beta of 0.62.

J&J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF - Get Free Report) last released its 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). J&J Snack Foods had a return on equity of 10.70% and a net margin of 5.49%. The firm had revenue of $439.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $440.92 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.92 EPS. The company's revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that J&J Snack Foods will post 5.21 earnings per share for the current year.

J&J Snack Foods Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 17th. This is a positive change from J&J Snack Foods's previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. J&J Snack Foods's payout ratio is currently 70.27%.

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.