The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) Receives $44.75 Average Target Price from Brokerages

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the thirteen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $44.75.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cheesecake Factory news, insider Keith Carango sold 13,095 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.88, for a total value of $653,178.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 14,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $747,052.76. This represents a 46.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $973,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Cheesecake Factory by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 255,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $10,364,000 after purchasing an additional 22,416 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Cheesecake Factory by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,241,272 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $48,772,000 after purchasing an additional 43,128 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.8% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,831,381 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $111,245,000 after acquiring an additional 76,578 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 403,271 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,353,000 after purchasing an additional 99,341 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

CAKE stock opened at $46.56 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.70, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. Cheesecake Factory has a 12-month low of $30.96 and a 12-month high of $50.75. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.83.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $865.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $866.13 million. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 3.63% and a return on equity of 43.90%. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 13th. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is 41.06%.

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.