DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Takes Position in Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 1,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in Papa John’s International in the 1st quarter worth about $491,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Papa John’s International by 209.4% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $466,000 after acquiring an additional 2,988 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. purchased a new stake in Papa John’s International in the 1st quarter worth about $1,664,000. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in Papa John’s International by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $408,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Papa John’s International by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 93,544 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,848,000 after acquiring an additional 1,970 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Papa John’s International in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Benchmark reduced their price objective on Papa John’s International from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Papa John’s International in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Stephens assumed coverage on Papa John’s International in a research report on Friday, April 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $75.00 target price on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on Papa John’s International from $84.00 to $78.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Papa John’s International presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.10.

Papa John’s International Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PZZA opened at $60.95 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.57. Papa John’s International, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.66 and a 52 week high of $86.38.

Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $571.32 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $578.15 million. Papa John’s International had a negative return on equity of 19.46% and a net margin of 3.84%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Papa John’s International, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Papa John’s International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Papa John’s International’s dividend payout ratio is 74.80%.

Insider Activity

In other Papa John’s International news, Director Laurette T. Koellner sold 2,886 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.21, for a total value of $202,626.06. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,320,228.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.