Cohen Capital Management Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA)

Cohen Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 41,665 shares of the company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Cohen Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Papa John’s International were worth $3,176,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PZZA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Papa John’s International by 11.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,479,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $237,381,000 after purchasing an additional 353,832 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake 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 worth $4,263,000 after acquiring an additional 54,949 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake 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 worth $1,493,000 after acquiring an additional 7,521 shares during the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Papa John’s International during the third quarter worth about $257,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake 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 worth $2,818,000 after acquiring an additional 15,301 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on PZZA. Stephens began coverage on Papa John’s International in a research note on Friday, April 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Benchmark lowered their target price 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. BTIG Research lowered Papa John’s International from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Papa John’s International from $84.00 to $78.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Papa John’s International from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Papa John’s International has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Papa John’s International news, Director Laurette T. Koellner sold 2,886 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.21, for a total transaction of $202,626.06. Following the transaction, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Papa John’s International Price Performance

PZZA traded up $0.72 on Monday, reaching $63.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 658,780 shares, compared to its average volume of 792,267. The stock has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.14. Papa John’s International, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.24 and a 1 year high of $86.38. The business’s 50 day moving average is $68.17 and its 200 day moving average is $69.52.

Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.18. Papa John’s International had a negative return on equity of 19.46% and a net margin of 3.84%. The company had revenue of $571.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $578.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. Papa John’s International’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Papa John’s International, Inc. will post 2.63 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. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Papa John’s International’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.80%.

Papa John’s International 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.