Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Given New $59.00 Price Target at Wedbush

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its price target hoisted by Wedbush from $52.00 to $59.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

CAKE has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays increased their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com lowered Cheesecake Factory from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $38.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cheesecake Factory has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.75.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Cheesecake Factory stock opened at $48.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.44 and a quick ratio of 0.33. Cheesecake Factory has a one year low of $30.96 and a one year high of $50.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.27, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $41.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.47.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $865.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 company earned $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.3 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, insider Keith Carango sold 13,095 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.88, for a total transaction of $653,178.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 14,977 shares in the company, valued at approximately $747,052.76. This trade represents a 46.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 76,578 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 67,550 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings 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. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,118,549 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $45,365,000 after purchasing an additional 12,493 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings 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 valued at $37,038,000 after purchasing an additional 223,497 shares during the period. 94.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.