Stephens Reaffirms "Overweight" Rating for Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA)

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "overweight" rating reissued by equities researchers at Stephens in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $62.00 target price on the stock. Stephens' price objective indicates a potential upside of 65.20% from the company's previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PZZA. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Papa Johns International from $56.00 to $45.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America upped their target price on Papa Johns International from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Papa Johns International in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, KeyCorp cut Papa Johns International from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $59.82.

Papa Johns International Trading Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ:PZZA traded up $0.72 on Monday, hitting $37.53. 583,906 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,346,807. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $46.23 and a 200-day moving average of $47.11. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a PE ratio of 13.08, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.19. Papa Johns International has a fifty-two week low of $36.25 and a fifty-two week high of $78.67.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PZZA. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $123,129,000 after acquiring an additional 1,070,485 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Papa Johns International by 25.9% during the second 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 period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Papa Johns International in the 2nd quarter worth $93,586,000. Irth Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Papa Johns International in the 4th quarter valued at about $66,883,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Papa Johns International by 30.2% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,214,184 shares of the company's stock valued at $57,042,000 after purchasing an additional 281,399 shares during the last quarter.

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.