Blair William & Co. IL Sells 599 Shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Blair William & Co. IL reduced its position in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 10.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,173 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 599 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $252,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 64.1% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,766,131 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $85,940,000 after acquiring an additional 689,784 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,412,483 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,008,000 after acquiring an additional 155,614 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,288,000. JCP Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 181.3% in the fourth quarter. JCP Investment Management LLC now owns 667,210 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,652,000 after acquiring an additional 430,000 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 538,285 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $25,536,000 after acquiring an additional 81,450 shares during the period. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Cheesecake Factory

In related news, Director Alexander L. Cappello sold 12,388 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.88, for a total transaction of $816,121.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $448,379.28. This represents a 64.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 42,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total value of $2,402,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 40,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,289,168. This trade represents a 51.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 145,388 shares of company stock valued at $8,273,113 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.75.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CAKE opened at $62.36 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a twelve month low of $35.12 and a twelve month high of $69.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $62.01 and its 200-day moving average is $54.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.19, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.17.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.16 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $955.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $945.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.09 earnings per share. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.23%.

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.