Cheesecake Factory’s (CAKE) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Wedbush reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) in a research report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $45.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cheesecake Factory currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.67.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CAKE opened at $42.04 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Cheesecake Factory has a twelve month low of $29.27 and a twelve month high of $43.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $39.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.12. The stock has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.49.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.09. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 43.62% and a net margin of 3.32%. The company had revenue of $904.04 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $909.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 14th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 14th. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.54%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CAKE. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 2,360.7% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 689 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 661 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 276.4% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,449 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the second quarter valued at $67,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the first quarter valued at $121,000. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the first quarter valued at $202,000. 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.