Pizza shakeup: Domino's is said to have lost ground to Pizza Hut, Papa John's in Q4
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Domino's Pizza (NYSE:DPZ) is on watch after Evercore ISI fired off a Tactical Underperform rating on the pizza stock, which means a near-term downturn in share price is anticipated by the firm.
Analyst David Palmer and team lowered sharply the Q4 U.S. same-store sales estimate on the pizza chain operator to 0% to 1% based on a panel analysis.
Notably, Domino's (DPZ) is said to have appeared to meaningfully underperform Pizza Hut (QSR) and Papa Johns (PZZA) during the quarter, which benefited from new menu news and third-party delivery (marketing and driver service).
The call on DPZ is only for the near term as Evercore sticks with an with Outperform rating for the balance of the year on the expectation that steps to bolster demand via innovation and promotion will help delivery market share gains.
Shares of Domino's Pizza (DPZ) fell 2.06% in premarket trading on Friday.
See all the consensus estimates on DPZ ahead of the earnings report due out in late February.