PZZA CHANGING OUR RATING ON PAPA JOHN’S BASED ON…

By Mark Kalinowski Published on March 29, 2019 at 12:00 AM

We upgrade the shares of Papa John’s (PZZA) to Buy (from Neutral). We have been impressed with the strides Papa John’s has made with (and following) the recent strategic investment of Starboard Value, including the recent naming of basketball legend and businessman Shaquille O’Neal to Papa John’s board of directors and as a brand ambassador (and franchisee), and the appointment of former Subway SVP of Marketing for North America Karlin Linhardt as Papa John’s Global Chief Marketing Officer.

Read More

DNKN DATA-DRIVEN CHECKS LEAD TO RATINGS CHANGE…

By Mark Kalinowski Published on January 23, 2019 at 12:00 AM

Based on our data-driven checks, we upgrade the shares of Dunkin’ Brands Group (DNKN) from Neutral to Buy. Our checks regarding the fourth quarter lead us to raise our Q4E same-store sales forecast for the core Dunkin’ U.S. business by 60 basis points, to +2.1%, which according to Consensus Metrix data becomes the new sellside high. Sell-side consensus is at +1.4% as of this writing.

Read More