World’s third largest pizza delivery company, Papa John’s International, Inc. PZZA is scheduled to report first-quarter 2017 numbers on May 2, after market close.

Last quarter, Papa John’s posted a positive earnings surprise of 4.55%. In fact, the company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 10.26%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Papa John's International, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Papa John's International, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | Papa John's International, Inc. Quote

Factors Likely to Affect Q1 Results

Papa John's has been delivering positive comps in both domestic and international markets since the beginning of 2014 on the back of various sales building initiatives such as menu innovation and provision of value offers. We expect the same trend in the to-be-reported quarter.

Furthermore, this pizza delivery company’s strategic partnerships along with large-scale international expansion plans bode well. Also, its shift to a healthy menu and commitment to provide quality food should appeal to health conscious customers and boost traffic. Additionally, the company’s investments in technology-driven initiatives like digital ordering and applications development are expected to attract new customers and drive growth as well as efficiency in the first-quarter.

Nevertheless, a soft consumer spending environment in the U.S. restaurant space might limit the to-be-reported quarter’s revenue growth. Meanwhile, negative currency translation could also affect the quarter’s results, given Papa John's substantial international exposure. Notably, rising labor costs and expenses incurred to execute the initiatives might also dent the quarter’s profits.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show earnings beat for Papa John’s this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here, as elaborated below.

Zacks ESP: Papa John’s has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at 75 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Papa John’s has a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, the company’s 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies to consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Jack in the Box Inc. JACK has an Earnings ESP of +4.40% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Wingstop Inc. WING has an Earnings ESP of +6.67% and a Zacks Rank #3.

The Priceline Group Inc. PCLN has an Earnings ESP of +2.06% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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