Benchmark Reaffirms Buy Rating for Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA)

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Benchmark in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $50.00 price target on the stock. Benchmark's price objective suggests a potential upside of 22.71% from the company's previous close.

PZZA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Papa Johns International in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Papa Johns International from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Stephens reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Papa Johns International in a research note on Thursday. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Papa Johns International from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Papa Johns International from $55.00 to $42.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $51.25.

Papa Johns International Stock Performance

Shares of PZZA traded up $2.48 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $40.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 512,164 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,241,822. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a PE ratio of 14.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.09. Papa Johns International has a one year low of $30.16 and a one year high of $60.75. The stock's 50-day moving average is $38.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.61.

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $518.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $512.48 million. Papa Johns International had a negative return on equity of 19.61% and a net margin of 4.51%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. Analysts expect that Papa Johns International will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of Papa Johns International by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 39,839 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,637,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Papa Johns International by 4.1% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 399,784 shares of the company's stock worth $16,423,000 after acquiring an additional 15,892 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Papa Johns International in the 1st quarter valued at about $14,348,000. Alberta Investment Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Papa Johns International during the 1st quarter worth about $5,020,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Papa Johns International by 38.1% in the 1st quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 230,014 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,449,000 after purchasing an additional 63,416 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.

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