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Investing.com — American pizza restaurant chain Papa John’s International Inc’s (NASDAQ:PZZA) has come under the spotlight of analysts, with Stifel, Northcoast and Oppenheimer talking positively of the firm in the last few weeks.
The latest note, released today from Oppenheimer, saw analyst Brian Bittner reiterate an outperform rating and $155 price target on the shares.
Bittner said in a note that Papa John’s represents a high-conviction top pick for 2022. “We’d take advantage of the 14% year-to-date pullback (vs. S&P 500‘s -8.8%) into 4Q21 results (2/24),” said Bittner.
He added that there is a “clear path for accelerating unit growth and a 20% valuation discount to DPZ [Domino’s Pizza] creates an attractive investment opportunity, in our view.”
The analyst also expects the company’s 2022 guidance to be favorable compared to Street estimates.
Papa John’s shares are down over 2% Tuesday despite the comments.
However, Bittner’s note follows Northcoast’s Jim Sanderson, who upgraded the stock to buy from neutral at the start of February. Sanderson told investors he believes the company continues to exceed expectations, driving sales growth.
Furthermore, Stifel provided positive commentary on Papa John’s at the end of January, saying he believes Q1-to-date same-restaurant sales are positive despite the success of the company’s Epic Stuff Crust Pizza launch last year.
