Piper Jaffray Maintains Rating, PT On RUTH

Piper Jaffray, citing improved June travel trends, is maintaining its Overweight rating and its $9 price target on Ruth's Hospitality Group RUTH. Says Piper Jaffray, in the report, “Travel data showed continued improvement in June, which we highlight as a positive update for shares of RUTH given the company's exposure to our "high-end" consumer recovery thesis. Steadily improving, highly correlated industry metrics, such as hotel RevPAR, remain in positive territory with 7.7% y/y growth in June. Although luxury hotel RevPAR data for June was not available at the time of this report we would note that it has outpaced overall RevPAR for the past 18 months. Given these favorable tailwinds and the company's ongoing focus around restaurant-level execution, we maintain our Overweight rating and $9 price target on RUTH shares.” RUTH closed yesterday at $6.42.