The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,040,000 shares, a growth of 9.3% from the March 31st total of 6,440,000 shares. Currently, 15.0% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 821,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 8.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the third quarter worth $612,000. Simplicity Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.4% in the third quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 13,081 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $396,000 after acquiring an additional 436 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.6% in the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 74,035 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,243,000 after acquiring an additional 2,577 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 40.7% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,148 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 2,935 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 21,642 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $656,000 after acquiring an additional 487 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CAKE has been the subject of several research reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Cheesecake Factory from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $33.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cheesecake Factory has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.64.

Cheesecake Factory Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of Cheesecake Factory stock opened at $33.82 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. Cheesecake Factory has a 12-month low of $28.58 and a 12-month high of $38.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.42, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.86.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The restaurant operator reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.07. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 2.95% and a return on equity of 41.66%. The business had revenue of $877.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $876.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.19%. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is 52.43%.

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.