Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Has $1.29 Million Stock Position in J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its stake in J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,341 shares of the company’s stock after selling 91 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in J&J Snack Foods were worth $1,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JJSF. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in 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 valued at $110,612,000 after buying an additional 106,817 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of J&J Snack Foods by 434.0% during the third 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 lifted its holdings in shares of J&J Snack Foods by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 602,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,140,000 after purchasing an additional 17,062 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings 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 worth $38,596,000 after purchasing an additional 13,653 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings 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 worth $7,672,000 after purchasing an additional 9,703 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JJSF has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of J&J Snack Foods in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of J&J Snack Foods from $175.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th.

J&J Snack Foods Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ JJSF opened at $131.44 on Friday. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $139.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $158.42. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a PE ratio of 30.29 and a beta of 0.64.

J&J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities analysts expect that J&J Snack Foods Corp. will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

J&J Snack Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. J&J Snack Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.