Ruffer LLP Purchases New Position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Ruffer LLP acquired a new stake in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 198,179 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $9,401,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,114,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Cheesecake Factory by 166.9% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,076,347 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $51,062,000 after acquiring an additional 673,076 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter worth $3,408,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 67,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in Cheesecake Factory by 159.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 97,765 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,964,000 after acquiring an additional 60,100 shares during the period. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total transaction of $1,553,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 39,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,134,687.36. This trade represents a 42.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CAKE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer upgraded Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays increased their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cheesecake Factory currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.19.

Cheesecake Factory Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of Cheesecake Factory stock opened at $49.16 on Friday. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 12-month low of $33.05 and a 12-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 market cap of $2.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.36, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.60.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $920.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.89% and a net margin of 4.38%. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.