Crestline Management LP Takes Position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Crestline Management LP purchased a new position in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 11,042 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $524,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 9.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 255,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,364,000 after purchasing an additional 22,416 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter worth $63,114,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at about $270,000. New Century Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,142,000. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,321 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $110,000 after acquiring an additional 741 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CAKE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $55.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.60.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

Shares of CAKE opened at $50.17 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $48.51 and a 200-day moving average of $49.44. The company has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.11. 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 1 year low of $33.50 and a 1 year high of $57.32.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.12. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 45.89%. The firm had revenue of $927.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $927.17 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 14th. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is currently 33.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cheesecake Factory news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total transaction of $1,553,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 39,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,134,687.36. The trade was a 42.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of the company’s 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 approximately $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. 8.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.