Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Price Target Raised to $52.00

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its price target hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $45.00 to $52.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on CAKE. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Barclays raised their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered Cheesecake Factory from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 28th. Wedbush raised their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.19.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

CAKE opened at $54.97 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.51. Cheesecake Factory has a 52-week low of $33.05 and a 52-week high of $57.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.44. The business’s fifty day moving average is $51.06 and its 200-day moving average is $45.31.

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

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,443,458 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $258,238,000 after acquiring an additional 21,096 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,876,295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $76,084,000 after acquiring an additional 67,550 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,412,483 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,008,000 after acquiring an additional 155,614 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,363,051 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $64,663,000 after acquiring an additional 186,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter worth about $63,114,000. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by 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.