Versant Capital Management Inc Grows Position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 108.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 616 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $29,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CAKE. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Cheesecake Factory during the third quarter worth approximately $973,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 255,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,364,000 after acquiring an additional 22,416 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Cheesecake Factory by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 403,271 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $16,353,000 after purchasing an additional 99,341 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased 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 valued at $48,772,000 after purchasing an additional 43,128 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Cheesecake Factory by 1.1% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cheesecake Factory

In other Cheesecake Factory news, insider Keith Carango sold 13,095 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was 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 $747,052.76. The trade was a 46.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

CAKE opened at $50.45 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $48.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.26. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $31.24 and a fifty-two week high of $52.10. The firm has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.50.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $865.50 million for 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%. The business’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.06%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CAKE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James increased their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective 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. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.40.

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.