Papa John's Reports Solid Preliminary Comps, Stock Gains
Papa John's International, Inc. PZZA reported preliminary comparable restaurant sales for the month of September and fiscal third quarter. Following the announcement, the company’s shares gained 2.8% during trading hours on Sep 29.
Preliminary Comparable Sales
For the five weeks ended Sep 27, 2020, comparable sales at Domestic company-owned restaurants, North America franchised restaurants, System-wide North America restaurants and System-wide international restaurants rose 14.3%, 19.7%, 18.4% and 23.3%, respectively. Markedly, the company witnessed double-digit sales for the sixth consecutive month in September.
For fiscal third quarter (ended Sep 27), the metrics improved 18.2%, 25.5%, 23.8% and 20.6%,at Domestic company-owned restaurants, North America franchised restaurants, System-wide North America restaurants and System-wide international restaurants, respectively.
Meanwhile, Rob Lynch, president & CEO of Papa John’s, stated, “We remain confident that our innovation pipeline, marketing and technology platforms, and strong operations will continue to support strong results during, and after, the pandemic.”
So far this year, shares of Papa John's have gained 35.8%, compared with the industry’s decline of 4.2%.
Other Updates
Although the coronavirus pandemic has triggered a catastrophe in terms of lives lost and financial impact, the company appears resilient enough to navigate through these uncertain times. Majority of the traditional restaurants in North America were fully operational, while non-traditional restaurants located in universities and stadiums remained temporarily closed.
Notably, the number of restaurants temporarily closed due the pandemic are only now approximately 90 (primarily in Europe and Latin America), compared to 150 as reported on Aug 25, 2020.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Papa John’s currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include BJ's Restaurants, Inc. BJRI, Chuy's Holdings, Inc. CHUY and Jack in the Box Inc. JACK, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1.
BJ's Restaurants has a three-five year earnings per share growth rate of 15%.
Chuy's Holdings has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 87.3%, on average.
Jack in the Box’s 2021 earnings are expected to surge 16.1%.
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