Wells Fargo & Company Increases Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Price Target to $36.00

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its price objective lifted by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from $35.00 to $36.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective suggests a potential downside of 2.01% from the company’s current price.

CAKE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James raised Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. 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 report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.50.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

CAKE stock traded up $2.77 on Thursday, reaching $36.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,749,929 shares, compared to its average volume of 842,060. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $35.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The company has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.48. Cheesecake Factory has a 52 week low of $28.58 and a 52 week high of $38.19.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The restaurant operator reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $891.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $890.49 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 41.66% and a net margin of 2.95%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cheesecake Factory

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. South Dakota Investment Council acquired a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at $844,000. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter worth about $6,827,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 46.9% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 411,017 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $12,454,000 after purchasing an additional 131,295 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Preferred LLC acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,335,000. Finally, IPG Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,246,000. 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.