Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Price Target Raised to $38.00

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its price target boosted by Barclays from $35.00 to $38.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underweight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Barclays‘s target price points to a potential downside of 10.27% from the company’s current price.

CAKE has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of 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 set a $50.00 target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cheesecake Factory presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.82.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

Shares of CAKE traded down $0.10 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $42.35. The stock had a trading volume of 621,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 938,442. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $39.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.96. Cheesecake Factory has a fifty-two week low of $29.27 and a fifty-two week high of $43.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.43, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a current ratio of 0.43.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.09. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 3.32% and a return on equity of 43.62%. The business had revenue of $904.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $909.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.21 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAKE. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,831,381 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $111,245,000 after acquiring an additional 76,578 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,241,272 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $48,772,000 after purchasing an additional 43,128 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Cheesecake Factory by 31.1% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 942,694 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,038,000 after purchasing an additional 223,497 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its position in Cheesecake Factory by 8.0% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 819,328 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $32,191,000 after purchasing an additional 60,545 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 0.7% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 530,497 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $20,843,000 after purchasing an additional 3,872 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

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.