Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Acquires 291,905 Shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 322.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 382,383 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 291,905 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $18,140,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CAKE. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 5,772 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 108.1% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 616 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in Cheesecake Factory by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 95,100 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,512,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $2,134,687.36. This represents a 42.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 3,092,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $164,131,162.76. This represents a 3.13 % 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.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Down 2.4 %

Cheesecake Factory stock opened at $45.68 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $51.47 and a 200-day moving average of $47.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a twelve month low of $33.05 and a twelve month high of $57.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a PE ratio of 14.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.24.

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, beating 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 firm had revenue of $920.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is 33.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CAKE. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Oppenheimer upgraded Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of 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. cut their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $55.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Four investment 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 MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.38.

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.