ProShare Advisors LLC Acquires 4,479 Shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 44.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,523 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,479 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $689,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lido Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 10,805 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $513,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 5,051 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $240,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $382,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 5,772 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Institutional investors own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CAKE. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Argus set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $56.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total value of $1,553,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 39,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,134,687.36. The trade was a 42.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $164,131,162.76. This trade 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 company insiders.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

CAKE opened at $52.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a PE ratio of 16.43, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $49.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.05. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a twelve month low of $33.50 and a twelve month 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $927.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $927.17 million. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 45.89%. Cheesecake Factory’s revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is 33.86%.

Cheesecake Factory 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.