22,385 Shares in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) Purchased by Headlands Technologies LLC

Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 22,385 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,062,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAKE. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 360,718 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,112,000 after acquiring an additional 32,000 shares during the period. Ruffer LLP bought a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the 4th quarter worth about $9,401,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 255,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,364,000 after buying an additional 22,416 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP raised its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 252.6% in the 4th quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 22,752 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,079,000 after acquiring an additional 16,300 shares during the period. Finally, Inceptionr LLC acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter worth approximately $513,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of Cheesecake Factory stock opened at $50.86 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $51.67 and a 200-day moving average of $47.87. 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 Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 52-week low of $33.05 and a 52-week high of $57.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.55.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $920.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.89% and a net margin of 4.38%. Equities research analysts expect that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CAKE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $50.00 target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cheesecake Factory currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.38.

Insider Activity at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total value of $1,553,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 39,856 shares in the company, valued at $2,134,687.36. This represents a 42.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.08, for a total transaction of $5,308,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 3,092,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $164,131,162.76. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.