Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Price Target Raised to $49.00

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its target price lifted by Robert W. Baird from $46.00 to $49.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Oppenheimer raised Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $52.00 to $45.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.63.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

CAKE stock opened at $50.31 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $2.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.72, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.17. Cheesecake Factory has a twelve month low of $33.50 and a twelve month high of $57.32.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $927.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $927.17 million. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 45.89%. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.15%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.75%.

Insider Activity at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total value of $1,553,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 through the SEC website. Also, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $164,131,162.76. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cheesecake Factory

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,443,458 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $258,238,000 after purchasing an additional 21,096 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 64.1% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,766,131 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $85,940,000 after buying an additional 689,784 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Cheesecake Factory by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,412,483 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,008,000 after acquiring an additional 155,614 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,363,051 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $64,663,000 after acquiring an additional 186,026 shares during the period. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at $63,114,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Cheesecake Factory Company Profile

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.