Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA) Earns Overweight Rating from Stephens

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by equities researchers at Stephens in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $62.00 price target on the stock. Stephens’ price target suggests a potential upside of 68.43% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also commented on PZZA. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Papa Johns International in a report on Friday, December 13th. KeyCorp lowered Papa Johns International from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Papa Johns International from $56.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Papa Johns International from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.82.

Papa Johns International Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of Papa Johns International stock opened at $36.81 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.11. Papa Johns International has a 12-month low of $36.25 and a 12-month high of $78.67. The company has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.19.

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $506.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $497.28 million. Papa Johns International had a net margin of 4.51% and a negative return on equity of 19.61%. Papa Johns International’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Papa Johns International will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Papa Johns International

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1832 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Papa Johns International during the 2nd quarter valued at about $93,586,000. Irth Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Papa Johns International in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,883,000. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Papa Johns International by 88.1% during the third quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 2,285,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,129,000 after acquiring an additional 1,070,485 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Papa Johns International by 25.9% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,170,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,991,000 after acquiring an additional 446,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in Papa Johns International during the third quarter worth $15,845,000.

About Papa Johns International

Papa John’s International, Inc engages in the operation and franchise of pizza delivery and carryout restaurants. It operates through the following segments: Domestic Company-owned Restaurants, North America Franchising, North America Commissaries, International Operations, and All Others. The Domestic Company-Owned Restaurants segment consists of retail sales of pizza and side items, breadsticks, cheese sticks, chicken poppers and wings, dessert items, and canned and bottled beverages.