Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Neutral” Rating for Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $62.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock, up from their prior target price of $54.00. Piper Sandler’s price target suggests a potential upside of 0.40% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on CAKE. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $67.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Argus set a $60.00 price objective on Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven 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 price target of $61.75.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CAKE traded up $0.12 during trading on Monday, reaching $61.75. The stock had a trading volume of 1,463,064 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,718,630. Cheesecake Factory has a 1-year low of $34.53 and a 1-year high of $69.70. The stock has a market cap of $3.08 billion, a PE ratio of 19.00, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $61.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.51.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.10. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.92% and a net margin of 4.33%. The firm had revenue of $955.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $945.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 42,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $2,402,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 40,878 shares in the company, valued at $2,289,168. The trade was a 51.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Alexander L. Cappello sold 12,388 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.88, for a total transaction of $816,121.44. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,806 shares in the company, valued at $448,379.28. This represents a 64.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 145,388 shares of company stock valued at $8,273,113. 8.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Penserra Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $137,000. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. now owns 31,500 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,974,000 after purchasing an additional 4,200 shares during the last quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC now owns 27,434 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,719,000 after purchasing an additional 1,683 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 9,261 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keybank National Association OH increased its position in Cheesecake Factory by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 7,789 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $488,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

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.