Advisors Preferred LLC Acquires New Position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Advisors Preferred LLC acquired a new stake in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 10,136 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 274,877 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $13,376,000 after purchasing an additional 6,047 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 1st quarter valued at $5,559,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at $489,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at $972,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at $6,513,000. Institutional investors own 94.48% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CAKE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial upped their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley set a $45.00 price target on Cheesecake Factory and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cheesecake Factory currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $59.38.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of CAKE traded down $3.03 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $65.48. 1,344,008 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,316,578. The stock has a market cap of $3.24 billion, a PE ratio of 20.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $59.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.66. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 12 month low of $33.50 and a 12 month high of $69.70.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $927.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $927.17 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 46.06% and a net margin of 4.33%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. Equities analysts expect that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 42,900 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $2,402,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 40,878 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,289,168. This trade represents a 51.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Keith Carango sold 50,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.12, for a total value of $2,783,560.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 20,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,145,062.88. This represents a 70.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 133,000 shares of company stock worth $7,456,992. 8.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cheesecake Factory 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.