Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Given New $45.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its price objective hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $38.00 to $45.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

CAKE has been the topic of several other research reports. Wedbush upped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stephens upped their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $40.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cheesecake Factory presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.17.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

Shares of CAKE stock opened at $46.64 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company has a market cap of $2.38 billion, a PE ratio of 19.51, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.36. Cheesecake Factory has a 12-month low of $29.27 and a 12-month high of $49.75.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.11. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 43.62% and a net margin of 3.32%. The firm had revenue of $865.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $866.13 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAKE. Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,831,381 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $111,245,000 after buying an additional 76,578 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Cheesecake Factory by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,241,272 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $48,772,000 after acquiring an additional 43,128 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 31.1% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 942,694 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,038,000 after purchasing an additional 223,497 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 8.0% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 819,328 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $32,191,000 after purchasing an additional 60,545 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 0.7% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 530,497 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $20,843,000 after purchasing an additional 3,872 shares during the period. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.