Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Price Target Raised to $50.00

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its target price lifted by Barclays from $46.00 to $50.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on CAKE. Wedbush boosted their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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. Bank of America upped their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer upgraded Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Stephens upped their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.19.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

NASDAQ CAKE opened at $54.65 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $51.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.51. Cheesecake Factory has a 1 year low of $33.05 and a 1 year high of $57.32.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.13. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.89% and a net margin of 4.38%. The company had revenue of $920.96 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $912.67 million. On average, analysts predict that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is presently 33.75%.

Institutional Trading of Cheesecake Factory

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,443,458 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $258,238,000 after acquiring an additional 21,096 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position 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. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,412,483 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,008,000 after purchasing an additional 155,614 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,363,051 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $64,663,000 after purchasing an additional 186,026 shares during the period. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $63,114,000. Institutional investors own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

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.