The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated $CAKE Stock Holdings Trimmed by Westwood Holdings Group Inc.

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 18.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,274,487 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 283,150 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $79,859,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 13.8% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 38,646 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,881,000 after acquiring an additional 4,692 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 17.7% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,604,626 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $78,081,000 after purchasing an additional 241,575 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 156.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,045,705 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $148,204,000 after purchasing an additional 1,859,194 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the first quarter worth $517,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the first quarter worth $328,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CAKE has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $57.00 to $52.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer set a $70.00 target price on Cheesecake Factory in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Argus cut their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $72.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $61.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cheesecake Factory has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.18.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Up 1.8%

CAKE opened at $49.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 12 month low of $42.69 and a 12 month high of $69.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $49.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.58. The stock has a market cap of $2.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.96.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The restaurant operator reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $907.23 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $912.95 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 46.35% and a net margin of 4.33%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.73%.

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.