J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) Shares Down 10.1% – Time to Sell?

J & J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) fell 10.1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $78.23 and last traded at $76.0880. 12,417 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 95% from the average session volume of 262,976 shares. The stock had previously closed at $84.59.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on JJSF. Zacks Research cut shares of J & J Snack Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 19th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of J & J Snack Foods in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of J & J Snack Foods in a research report on Friday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.00.

J & J Snack Foods Stock Down 7.0%

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 25.05 and a beta of 0.43. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $82.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $87.20.

J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $344.82 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $349.67 million. J & J Snack Foods had a net margin of 3.92% and a return on equity of 8.79%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that J & J Snack Foods Corp. will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

J & J Snack Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 17th were issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 17th. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. J & J Snack Foods’s payout ratio is 101.91%.

J & J Snack Foods announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, February 3rd that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On J & J Snack Foods

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in J & J Snack Foods by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,739,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $157,451,000 after purchasing an additional 26,975 shares during the period. Bernzott Capital Advisors grew its holdings in J & J Snack Foods by 55.2% in the third quarter. Bernzott Capital Advisors now owns 102,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,897,000 after purchasing an additional 36,614 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in J & J Snack Foods by 1,544.4% in the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 38,939 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,742,000 after purchasing an additional 36,571 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in J & J Snack Foods by 19.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 404,461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,865,000 after purchasing an additional 67,028 shares during the period. Finally, Phocas Financial Corp. purchased a new stake in J & J Snack Foods in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,647,000. 76.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

J & J Snack Foods Company 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.