Leeward Investments LLC MA Decreases Holdings in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Leeward Investments LLC MA reduced its stake in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 213,867 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 15,898 shares during the quarter. Leeward Investments LLC MA’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $10,146,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,876,295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $76,084,000 after acquiring an additional 67,550 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter worth about $63,114,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 1.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,118,549 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $45,365,000 after purchasing an additional 12,493 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 1.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 597,901 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $24,245,000 after purchasing an additional 6,872 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Cheesecake Factory by 32.7% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 403,271 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,353,000 after buying an additional 99,341 shares during the last quarter. 94.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. UBS Group increased their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lifted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.19.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

NASDAQ CAKE opened at $54.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.51. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a twelve month low of $33.05 and a twelve month high of $57.32. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $51.16 and a 200 day moving average of $45.53.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $920.96 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $912.67 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.89% and a net margin of 4.38%. 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 will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.75%.

Cheesecake Factory Company 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.