Stephens Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA)

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Stephens in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $50.00 price target on the stock. Stephens’ target price points to a potential downside of 0.83% from the stock’s previous close.

PZZA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Papa Johns International in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Papa Johns International from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Papa Johns International in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Northcoast Research raised Papa Johns International to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Loop Capital cut their target price on Papa Johns International from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Papa Johns International currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.25.

Papa Johns International Price Performance

NASDAQ PZZA opened at $50.42 on Thursday. Papa Johns International has a one year low of $30.16 and a one year high of $60.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.18.

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Papa Johns International had a negative return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 4.51%. The firm had revenue of $518.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $512.48 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Papa Johns International will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Papa Johns International

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Papa Johns International during the fourth quarter worth $559,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Papa Johns International in the fourth quarter valued at $5,647,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in shares of Papa Johns International by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,500,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,635,000 after buying an additional 102,128 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Papa Johns International by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 387,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,923,000 after buying an additional 93,561 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Papa Johns International by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 389,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,011,000 after buying an additional 59,404 shares during the period.

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.