Guidance Capital Inc. Buys New Position in Papa Johns International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA)

Guidance Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Papa Johns International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 12,280 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $479,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Papa Johns International by 88.1% in the 3rd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 2,285,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,129,000 after buying an additional 1,070,485 shares during the period. Irth Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Papa Johns International in the 4th quarter valued at $66,883,000. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Papa Johns International by 19.3% during the 3rd quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,091,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,812,000 after purchasing an additional 176,470 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Papa Johns International by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 378,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,399,000 after purchasing an additional 28,883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in shares of Papa Johns International during the third quarter worth $15,845,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. KeyCorp downgraded Papa Johns International from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price 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. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $62.00 target price on shares of Papa Johns International in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group decreased their price objective 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, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Papa Johns International in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.83.

Papa Johns International Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ PZZA opened at $39.54 on Wednesday. Papa Johns International, Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.28 and a 52-week high of $76.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.78, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.43.

Papa Johns International (NASDAQ:PZZA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Papa Johns International had a net margin of 4.51% and a negative return on equity of 19.61%. The firm had revenue of $506.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $497.28 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Papa Johns International, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Papa Johns International Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Papa Johns International’s payout ratio is 64.11%.

Papa Johns International Profile

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.