Papa John’s ($PZZA) has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the last few years. Hopefully, at its upcoming quarterly earnings call report, public perception will start to turn around. The consensus estimate from Zacks Investment Research is $0.32 per share, but we'll have to wait until Wednesday morning to find out what they post. If that turns out to be the case, it would represent a year-over-year change for the positive, alongside rising revenues. Fingers crossed!
But how does Papa John's stack up to its other longtime competitors, Pizza Hut ($YUM) and Domino's ($DPZ)? Before we look at our pizza pie charts, let's check out the current state of Papa John's.
The good news, initially for Papa John, is that hiring and stock have both been going up nonstop since the start of last year. (The drop in late December is just LinkedIn purging dead accounts to make their data more accurate, so at no point did Papa John actually fire a thousand workers.)
The bad news comes from comparing the sheer number of stores, where Papa John's is far behind the pack in third place.
You can see where every rival chain is located across the country. Papa John is being dominated on the map by other options, including local pizzerias and the likes of Blaze and Little Caesar's. At least Canada gets to be the beneficiary of some Papa John's pizza.
Papa John's also comes in third place when comparing social media followers and likes. It seems as though Papa is never a bride or a bridesmaid when compared to its arch-nemesis, but if the company is making money at the earnings call, and can shed the bad press of the real Papa John, then does it really matter?
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
