Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Trading Down 5.9% on Analyst Downgrade

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) shares traded down 5.9% on Wednesday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $68.00 to $65.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Cheesecake Factory traded as low as $50.00 and last traded at $51.10. 2,266,119 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 59% from the average session volume of 1,423,116 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.33.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on CAKE. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $67.00 target price (up from $66.00) on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $70.00 target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird set a $57.00 price objective on Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.82.

Insider Transactions at Cheesecake Factory

In other Cheesecake Factory news, President David M. Gordon sold 43,335 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.06, for a total value of $2,732,705.10. Following the completion of the sale, the president owned 24,532 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,546,987.92. This represents a 63.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 8.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CAKE. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 156.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,045,705 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $148,204,000 after buying an additional 1,859,194 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the 1st quarter worth $75,795,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 83.5% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,591,205 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $126,088,000 after buying an additional 1,178,722 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the 1st quarter worth $47,720,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 64.1% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,766,131 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $85,940,000 after buying an additional 689,784 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40. The firm has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a PE ratio of 15.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.49.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The restaurant operator reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.08. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 47.25% and a net margin of 4.33%.The business had revenue of $907.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $912.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.58 EPS. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 10th. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is 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.