Critical Review: Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) and Viking (NYSE:VIK)

Viking (NYSE:VIK) and Papa John’s International (NASDAQ:PZZA) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Viking and Papa John’s International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Viking	1	2	16	0	2.79
Papa John’s International	3	6	0	0	1.67

Viking presently has a consensus target price of $107.33, indicating a potential upside of 25.26%. Papa John’s International has a consensus target price of $32.00, indicating a potential upside of 41.09%. Given Papa John’s International’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Papa John’s International is more favorable than Viking.

Risk & Volatility

Viking has a beta of 1.41, indicating that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Papa John’s International has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Viking and Papa John’s International”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Viking	$6.50 billion	5.87	$1.15 billion	$3.01	28.47
Papa John’s International	$2.05 billion	0.36	$30.53 million	$0.79	28.71

Viking has higher revenue and earnings than Papa John’s International. Viking is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Papa John’s International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.8% of Viking shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Papa John’s International shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Viking and Papa John’s International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Viking	19.33%	117.98%	10.80%
Papa John’s International	1.34%	-10.98%	5.68%

Summary

Viking beats Papa John’s International on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda.

About Papa John’s 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. The North America Franchising segment involves the offering of sales and support activities, development rights, and collection of royalties from franchisees located in the United States and Canada. The North America Commissaries segment includes the eleven full-service regional dough production and distribution and quality control centers. The International Operations segment represents all restaurant operations outside of the United States and Canada. The All Others segment focuses on franchise contributions to marketing funds and sale, company-owned and franchised restaurants, information systems and related services used in restaurant operations, point-of-sale system, online and other technology-based ordering platforms, printing, and promotional items. The company was founded by John H. Schnatter in 1984 and is headquartered in Louisville, KY.