That's in keeping with how the Pennsauken-based J&J Snack Foods has grown to generate more than $800 million in sales annually. For while it does engage in the mergers and acquisitions game, J&J aims for the incremental rather than the transformational deal.
Last June, J&J Snack Foods bought Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels Inc., a Chicago maker of all-natural premium pretzels, for $7.9 million. The acquisition is no blockbuster; Kim & Scott's had generated $8 million in sales in the 12 months before the transaction.
Purchases of businesses purveying such niche products have enabled J&J Snack Foods to report increased revenue for 165 straight quarters on a year-over-year basis. For every one of those quarters, Gerald B. Shreiber has been the chief executive of the company he founded in 1971.
Some shareholders attending J&J Snack Foods' annual meeting at the Crowne Plaza in Cherry Hill on Thursday morning may suggest that the 71-year-old Shreiber, who is also the company's biggest stockholder by far, take a run after Twinkies or Drake's cakes.
But all Shreiber will need to do is take a sip of his Icee frozen drink and put up a slide that shows the price appreciation for J&J Snack Foods' shares over the last five years compared against an index that contains many of its peers. J&J shares are up 104 percent vs. 22 percent for the 88-stock Russell 3000 Consumer Staples Growth Index.
One small addition to the Philly 50 list this week: a new column listing the price/earnings ratios for most companies. We are presenting P/Es using Friday's closing price divided by the trailing 12 months of earnings per share.
Think of the P/E ratio as how the stock market perceives a company's growth prospects.
Note that P/E ratios are meaningless for real estate investment trusts, so we use "NM" for "not meaningful" for the five REITs on the list. Also, while negative P/Es can be calculated, they're not helpful because it means a company is bleeding money rather than making it.
Contact Mike Armstrong at 215-854-2980 or marmstrong@phillynews.com, or @PhillyInc on Twitter.
