Contrasting J & J Snack Foods (JJSF) & Its Rivals

J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) is one of 328 public companies in the “Food Products” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare J & J Snack Foods to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, risk and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.0% of J & J Snack Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.0% of shares of all “Food Products” companies are held by institutional investors. 20.4% of J & J Snack Foods shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 18.8% of shares of all “Food Products” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for J & J Snack Foods and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
J & J Snack Foods	1	1	2	0	2.25
J & J Snack Foods Competitors	2448	8297	8374	403	2.34

J & J Snack Foods currently has a consensus price target of $110.50, indicating a potential upside of 23.01%. As a group, “Food Products” companies have a potential upside of 17.76%. Given J & J Snack Foods’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe J & J Snack Foods is more favorable than its competitors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares J & J Snack Foods and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
J & J Snack Foods	$1.58 billion	$65.60 million	34.55
J & J Snack Foods Competitors	$6.82 billion	$700.97 million	-2,412.85

J & J Snack Foods’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than J & J Snack Foods. J & J Snack Foods is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares J & J Snack Foods and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
J & J Snack Foods	3.23%	8.93%	6.07%
J & J Snack Foods Competitors	-13.55%	-142.54%	-2.56%

Dividends

J & J Snack Foods pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. J & J Snack Foods pays out 123.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Food Products” companies pay a dividend yield of 12.4% and pay out 29.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. J & J Snack Foods has increased its dividend for 20 consecutive years. J & J Snack Foods lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

J & J Snack Foods has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, J & J Snack Foods’ competitors have a beta of -3.83, indicating that their average stock price is 483% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

J & J Snack Foods beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About J & J Snack Foods

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. The Retail Supermarkets segment offers soft pretzel products including Superpretzel, frozen juice treats and desserts, including Luigi’s real Italian ice, Minute Maid juice bars and soft frozen lemonade, Whole Fruit frozen fruit bars and sorbet, Philly Swirl cups and sticks, ICEE Squeeze-Up Tubes and dough enrobed handheld products including Patio burritos. The Frozen Beverages segment provides frozen beverages to the food service industry primarily under the names ICEE, SLUSH PUPPIE, and PARROT ICE in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, as well as repair and maintenance services. The company was founded by Gerald B. Shreiber in 1971 and is headquartered in Mount Laurel, NJ.