The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $90.33 According to Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts maintain a “Hold” consensus on Cheesecake Factory, with 11 hold, four buy, one strong-buy and two sell ratings. The average 12-month price target is $90.33, below the reported share price of $116.43.
• The company exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $1.44 versus the $1.18 consensus and revenue of $1.03 billion, up 7.7% year over year. Analysts expect full-year EPS of approximately $4.63.
• Cheesecake Factory pays a quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share, equivalent to a $1.20 annualized payout and a 1.0% yield. Insiders sold more than 213,000 shares worth about $22.3 million over the prior 90 days.

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the eighteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $90.33.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Cheesecake Factory from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $101.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Mizuho increased their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Cheesecake Factory to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Cheesecake Factory from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CAKE opened at $116.43 on Wednesday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $107.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.55, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. Cheesecake Factory has a twelve month low of $43.07 and a twelve month high of $118.63.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.26. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 4.61% and a return on equity of 43.97%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $999.54 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. The business's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cheesecake Factory will post 4.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 11th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Cheesecake Factory's dividend payout ratio is currently 32.52%.

Insider Transactions at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, CFO Matthew Clark sold 68,900 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.30, for a total value of $6,841,770.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 45,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,479,323.70. This trade represents a 60.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Ashley W. Hanscom sold 3,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,541 shares of the company's stock, valued at $754,100. This represents a 31.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 213,749 shares of company stock valued at $22,301,899 in the last 90 days. 8.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cheesecake Factory

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Money Concepts Capital Corp boosted its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.8% in the first quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 5,802 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. NFSG Corp grew its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 115.8% during the first quarter. NFSG Corp now owns 682 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Abel Hall LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 8.5% during the first quarter. Abel Hall LLC now owns 4,672 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Cheesecake Factory by 0.4% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 93,700 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $5,130,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP acquired a new position in Cheesecake Factory during the second quarter valued at $36,000. 94.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is a restaurant company best known for The Cheesecake Factory, a full-service casual dining brand offering an extensive menu of American and international-inspired dishes, along with a broad selection of cheesecakes and other desserts. The company also operates North Italia, an Italian restaurant concept, and owns Fox Restaurant Concepts, which develops and operates additional restaurant brands, including Flower Child and Culinary Dropout.

The company was founded by David Overton, who opened the first Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, in 1978 after his parents began a cheesecake business.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.