Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Receives Overweight Rating from Stephens

Stephens reissued their overweight rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $44.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on CAKE. Barclays lifted their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Oppenheimer reiterated a market perform rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Cheesecake Factory from a neutral rating to an underweight rating and set a $33.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $35.64.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CAKE opened at $33.62 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.32, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. Cheesecake Factory has a 12-month low of $28.58 and a 12-month high of $38.19. The business’s 50 day moving average is $35.33 and its 200 day moving average is $33.48.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The restaurant operator reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $877.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $876.17 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 41.66% and a net margin of 2.95%. Cheesecake Factory’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is 52.43%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAKE. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Cheesecake Factory by 2,369.2% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 905,116 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $23,913,000 after buying an additional 868,460 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter worth about $13,927,000. Weiss Multi Strategy Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory during the first quarter worth about $10,360,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory during the second quarter worth about $6,244,000. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter worth about $6,609,000. 94.48% of the stock is currently 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.