Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wedbush raised their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $38.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stephens upped their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.75.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CAKE opened at $46.63 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.73, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.47. Cheesecake Factory has a fifty-two week low of $30.96 and a fifty-two week high of $50.75. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.70. 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 (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $865.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $866.13 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 43.90% and a net margin of 3.63%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. Cheesecake Factory’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Cheesecake Factory

In related news, insider Keith Carango sold 13,095 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.88, for a total value of $653,178.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 14,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $747,052.76. This represents a 46.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CAKE. Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,831,381 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $111,245,000 after acquiring an additional 76,578 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,876,295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $76,084,000 after buying an additional 67,550 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $48,772,000 after buying an additional 43,128 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,118,549 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $45,365,000 after buying an additional 12,493 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 31.1% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 942,694 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,038,000 after acquiring an additional 223,497 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.