ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Invests $208,000 in J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in JJSF. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in J&J Snack Foods in the fourth quarter worth $248,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in J&J Snack Foods by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,564,927 shares of the company’s stock worth $261,562,000 after acquiring an additional 16,503 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in J&J Snack Foods by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 1,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. Bridge City Capital LLC lifted its stake in J&J Snack Foods by 0.8% in the first quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 14,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,032,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co lifted its stake in J&J Snack Foods by 30.2% in the first quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 3,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $452,000 after acquiring an additional 725 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.04% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at J&J Snack Foods

In other news, Director Gerald B. Shreiber sold 20,000 shares of J&J Snack Foods stock in a transaction dated Saturday, August 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.95, for a total value of $3,359,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, VP Mary Lou Kehoe sold 1,500 shares of J&J Snack Foods stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.59, for a total value of $254,385.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $125,835.78. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Gerald B. Shreiber sold 20,000 shares of J&J Snack Foods stock in a transaction dated 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. Insiders own 22.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

J&J Snack Foods Stock Performance

Shares of J&J Snack Foods stock opened at $168.54 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.27, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.96 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $168.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $161.32. J&J Snack Foods Corp. has a 12 month low of $133.23 and a 12 month high of $176.38.

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

J&J Snack Foods Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. This is a positive change from J&J Snack Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. J&J Snack Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.