Are extra $(…) calls bad?

If I have code that pulls down a jQuery object, and then makes some further calls on it

$("a.postSyncLink").click(function () {

    var resultsTarget = $("span", $(link).parent().next());

    resultsTarget.html("<img style='position: absolute;' src='" + waitImgUrl + "'/><span>Sync in progress</span>");



    $.get($(this).attr("data-url"), function (returnVal) {

        resultsTarget.text(returnVal);

    });

});

Is it considered bad practice to subsequently (and unnecessarily) wrap that object in the jQuery function? Does jQuery optimize superfluous calls like this?

$("a.postSyncLink").click(function () {

    var resultsTarget = $("span", $(link).parent().next());

    $(resultsTarget).html("<img style='position: absolute;' src='" + waitImgUrl + "'/><span>Sync in progress</span>");



    $.get($(this).attr("data-url"), function (returnVal) {

        $(resultsTarget).text(returnVal);

    });

});

Source: Tips4all