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

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $44.75.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CAKE. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CAKE opened at $46.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $42.92 and a 200-day moving average of $39.83. 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 fifty-two week low of $30.96 and a fifty-two week high of $50.75.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.11. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 43.90% and a net margin of 3.63%. The company had revenue of $865.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $866.13 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.39 EPS. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Cheesecake Factory

In other Cheesecake Factory news, insider Keith Carango sold 13,095 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 14,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $747,052.76. The trade was a 46.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cheesecake Factory

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.8% during the second 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.7% during the third 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.6% during the second 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 lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $45,365,000 after purchasing an additional 12,493 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing 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.