Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stock Position in J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,797 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,205 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.39% of J&J Snack Foods worth $11,758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of JJSF. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in shares of J&J Snack Foods by 19.9% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 642,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,612,000 after acquiring an additional 106,817 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in J&J Snack Foods by 434.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 30,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,175,000 after purchasing an additional 24,435 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in J&J Snack Foods by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 602,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,140,000 after buying an additional 17,062 shares in the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its position in shares of J&J Snack Foods by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 248,523 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,596,000 after buying an additional 13,653 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of J&J Snack Foods by 27.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 44,572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,672,000 after buying an additional 9,703 shares during the period. 76.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of J&J Snack Foods from $175.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of J&J Snack Foods in a report on Tuesday, February 4th.

J&J Snack Foods Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ JJSF opened at $131.89 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $139.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $158.66. J&J Snack Foods Corp. has a twelve month low of $116.60 and a twelve month high of $180.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.39 and a beta of 0.64.

J&J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.29). J&J Snack Foods had a return on equity of 9.84% and a net margin of 5.31%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that J&J Snack Foods Corp. will post 4.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

J&J Snack Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. J&J Snack Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.89%.

J&J Snack Foods Profile

J&J Snack Foods Corp. engages in the manufacturing of nutritional snack foods and distribution of frozen beverages to the food service and retail supermarket industries. It operates through the following segments: Food Service, Retail Supermarkets, and Frozen Beverages. The Food Service segment includes soft pretzels, frozen novelties, churros, handheld products, and baked goods.