Cheesecake Factory’s (CAKE) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at William Blair

William Blair reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) in a report released on Thursday,RTT News reports.

CAKE has been the subject of several other reports. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $56.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.19.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

Shares of CAKE opened at $54.97 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $51.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.31. Cheesecake Factory has a 52 week low of $33.05 and a 52 week high of $57.32. The company has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a PE ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.44.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $920.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 3.63% and a return on equity of 43.90%. Research analysts expect that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is 41.06%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CAKE. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the 3rd quarter worth about $973,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 255,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $10,364,000 after acquiring an additional 22,416 shares during the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Cheesecake Factory during the 4th quarter worth about $1,142,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in Cheesecake Factory during the 4th quarter worth about $270,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 99,341 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% 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.