What To Expect From Papa John's’s (PZZA) Q4 Earnings

Fast-food pizza chain Papa John’s (NASDAQ:PZZA) will be reporting results tomorrow before market hours. Here's what to look for.

Last quarter Papa John's reported revenues of $522.8 million, up 2.4% year on year, missing analyst expectations by 1.4%. It was a weak quarter for the company, with revenue, EPS and free cash flow all falling short of expectations.

Is Papa John's buy or sell heading into the earnings? Read our full analysis here, it's free.

This quarter analysts are expecting Papa John's's revenue to grow 9.9% year on year to $578.2 million, improving on the 0.5% year-over-year decline in revenue the company had recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.72 per share.

Majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last thirty days, suggesting they are expecting the business to stay the course heading into the earnings. The company missed Wall St's revenue estimates five times over the last two years.

Looking at Papa John's's peers in the traditional fast food segment, some of them have already reported Q4 earnings results, giving us a hint of what we can expect. Jack in the Box's revenues decreased 7.5% year on year, beating analyst estimates by 1.2% and Portillo's reported revenues up 24.5% year on year, exceeding estimates by 2%. Jack in the Box traded flat on the results, and Portillo's was up 9%.

Read our full analysis of Jack in the Box's results here and Portillo's's results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the traditional fast food segment, with the stocks up on average 2.3% over the last month. Papa John's is down 4.4% during the same time, and is heading into the earnings with analyst price target of $80.7, compared to share price of $72.6.

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