Papa John’s price target lowered to $30 from $32 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler analyst Brian Mullan lowered the firm’s price target on Papa John’s (PZZA) to $30 from $32 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares following quarterly results. The firm notes North America same-store sales result of down 6.4% was below consensus, and is indicative of the difficult operating environment across QSR broadly and also across the QSR Pizza category specifically. On the call, management indicated that Q2-to-date same-store sales are running a bit worse than the down 6.4% from the Q1, which compares unfavorably to the pre-print consensus, and which should lead to downward revisions to consensus same-store sales estimates exiting the quarter.