Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 54,930 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 108.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 616 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 1,149.5% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,312 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 1,207 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 46.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cheesecake Factory news, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chairman now owns 3,092,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $164,131,162.76. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 39,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,134,687.36. This represents a 42.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CAKE shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Cheesecake Factory from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 28th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $55.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.81.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Up 0.4 %

CAKE stock opened at $48.70 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 cap of $2.52 billion, a PE ratio of 15.22, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.55. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 1 year low of $33.05 and a 1 year high of $57.32. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.15.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.13. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.89% and a net margin of 4.38%. The company had revenue of $920.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is 33.75%.

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.