Quadrant Capital Group LLC Acquires 511 Shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 48.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,566 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 511 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $55,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CAKE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,568,464 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $168,724,000 after buying an additional 22,099 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.8% in the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 646,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $19,600,000 after purchasing an additional 17,521 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 559,492 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $19,588,000 after buying an additional 13,352 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 529,375 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $18,533,000 after acquiring an additional 41,907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.0% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 476,762 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,446,000 after purchasing an additional 9,409 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CAKE shares. Citigroup upgraded Cheesecake Factory from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Raymond James raised Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.00.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CAKE opened at $37.48 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.66. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a twelve month low of $28.58 and a twelve month high of $41.25.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The restaurant operator reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. The business 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 42.15% and a net margin of 3.07%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.88%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.54%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Keith Carango sold 3,785 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.10, for a total transaction of $151,778.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 28,072 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,125,687.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 8.10% 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.