Hennessy Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,330,400 The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,330,400 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $63,114,000. Cheesecake Factory comprises approximately 1.9% of Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 13.4% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,771 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $266,000 after buying an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 435,307 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,103,000 after acquiring an additional 28,962 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised 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 last quarter. Wealth Alliance bought a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the second quarter valued at about $213,000. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory during the second quarter worth about $273,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Keith Carango sold 13,095 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.88, for a total value of $653,178.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 14,977 shares in the company, valued at approximately $747,052.76. This represents a 46.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CAKE shares. Oppenheimer raised Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cheesecake Factory from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.40.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ CAKE opened at $47.99 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.67. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 52 week low of $31.24 and a 52 week high of $52.10. The company has a market cap of $2.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $865.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $866.13 million. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 3.63% and a return on equity of 43.90%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.06%.

Cheesecake Factory Company 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.