The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $52.38.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 target price on Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th.

Insider Transactions at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total value of $1,553,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 39,856 shares in the company, valued at $2,134,687.36. This represents a 42.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.08, for a total value of $5,308,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 3,092,147 shares in the company, valued at $164,131,162.76. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cheesecake Factory

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 108.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 616 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 1,149.5% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,312 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 1,207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 46.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,321 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $110,000 after acquiring an additional 741 shares during the last quarter. 94.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

NASDAQ CAKE opened at $49.68 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $51.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.61. Cheesecake Factory has a 52 week low of $33.05 and a 52 week high of $57.32. The stock has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $920.96 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $912.67 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.89% and a net margin of 4.38%. Analysts forecast that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.75%.

About Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated operates and licenses restaurants in the United States and Canada. The company operates bakeries that produce cheesecakes and other baked products for its restaurants, international licensees, third-party bakery customers, external foodservice operators, retailers, and distributors.