Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) Lifted to “Hold” at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $60.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $65.00.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of Papa John’s International in a report on Friday, January 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Papa John’s International from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, March 9th. Wedbush reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $87.00 price objective on shares of Papa John’s International in a report on Friday, March 1st. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Papa John’s International from $84.00 to $78.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Papa John’s International in a report on Friday, April 12th. They issued an overweight rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $81.60.

Papa John’s International Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of PZZA opened at $62.91 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $67.87 and its 200-day moving average is $69.49. Papa John’s International has a 12 month low of $60.24 and a 12 month high of $86.38. The firm has a market cap of $2.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.14.

Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.18. Papa John’s International had a net margin of 3.84% and a negative return on equity of 19.46%. The company had revenue of $571.32 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $578.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. Papa John’s International’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Papa John’s International will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Papa John’s International Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Papa John’s International’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Papa John’s International news, Director Laurette T. Koellner sold 2,886 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.21, for a total value of $202,626.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,320,228.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Papa John’s International

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Papa John’s International by 11.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,479,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $237,381,000 after buying an additional 353,832 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in Papa John’s International by 731.9% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 62,457 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,263,000 after purchasing an additional 54,949 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its holdings in Papa John’s International by 52.4% during the third quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 21,886 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,493,000 after purchasing an additional 7,521 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Papa John’s International during the third quarter valued at approximately $257,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in Papa John’s International by 58.8% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 41,311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,818,000 after purchasing an additional 15,301 shares during the period.

Papa John’s International Company Profile

Papa John's International, Inc operates and franchises pizza delivery and carryout restaurants under the Papa John's trademark in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Domestic Company-Owned Restaurants, North America Commissaries, North America Franchising, and International Operations.