What's cookin' at Papa John's?

Analysts have already learned that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did some real damage to the fast casual pizza company's stores and their profits, shaving 0.4% off comparable domestic sales. But even with the hurricane-related interference, the company reported that its domestic comps for the quarter were up 3.9% year-over-year, and international comps were even better -- up 12.4%. As a result, everyone is expecting to see the pizza restaurant report very good numbers tomorrow. At last report, analysts predicted that Papa John's would transform low-single-digit sales gains into a 14% increase in profits over the year-ago quarter. They are looking for $234 million in total revenues and $0.55 in profits per diluted share.

 

What's more, last week's news from rival fast casual pizza hawker Domino's contained an additional reason to hope that Papa John's numbers won't disappoint. In explaining how it beat estimates in its own right, Domino's mentioned that lower cheese costs helped defray its costs of doing business. Because cheese is a commodity, it stands to reason that Papa John's benefited from the same low costs that helped Domino's out. For that reason, this Fool expects to see especially tasty results from Papa John's tomorrow afternoon.