Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) Receives $86.83 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the sixteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $86.67.

JACK has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays reduced their target price on Jack in the Box from $86.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com raised Jack in the Box from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Northcoast Research raised Jack in the Box from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Jack in the Box from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Jack in the Box from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 22nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Michael W. Murphy sold 1,332 shares of Jack in the Box stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.58, for a total value of $96,676.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 71,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,155,720.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in JACK. Raymond James & Associates bought a new position in shares of Jack in the Box in the 1st quarter worth about $1,129,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in Jack in the Box by 30.2% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 28,563 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,668,000 after buying an additional 6,622 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in Jack in the Box in the 1st quarter valued at about $599,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in Jack in the Box by 153.2% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 18,192 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,699,000 after buying an additional 11,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Jack in the Box by 36.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,284,343 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $306,789,000 after buying an additional 874,419 shares in the last quarter. 99.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Jack in the Box Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:JACK opened at $59.58 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.76. Jack in the Box has a 1 year low of $58.96 and a 1 year high of $99.56. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.25.

Jack in the Box (NASDAQ:JACK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The restaurant operator reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95. The firm had revenue of $487.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $480.76 million. Jack in the Box had a negative return on equity of 17.24% and a net margin of 7.03%. The company’s revenue was down 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.01 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Jack in the Box will post 6.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jack in the Box Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Jack in the Box’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.93%.

About Jack in the Box

Jack in the Box Inc operates and franchises Jack in the Box and Del Taco quick-service restaurants in the United States. The company was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.