Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Increases Position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated $CAKE

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 58,971 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 2,891 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $3,695,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 13,121 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $638,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 4.0% in the first quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,677 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $374,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 38.5% during the first quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,244 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,049 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the period. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the second quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $54.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.94.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Up 0.6%

CAKE stock opened at $55.50 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $59.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.06. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a one year low of $38.40 and a one year high of $69.70.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last issued its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $955.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $945.82 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.92% and a net margin of 4.33%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.23%.

Insider Activity

In related news, President David M. Gordon sold 43,335 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.06, for a total value of $2,732,705.10. Following the sale, the president directly owned 24,532 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,546,987.92. This trade represents a 63.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alexander L. Cappello sold 12,388 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director directly owned 6,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $448,379.28. This trade represents a 64.54% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

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.