The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated $CAKE Shares Sold by Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 37.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 21,801 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $2,031,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CAKE. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 6.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,704,314 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $106,792,000 after purchasing an additional 99,688 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 4.9% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 452,955 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,382,000 after buying an additional 21,223 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 348,506 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $21,837,000 after acquiring an additional 60,078 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 220,334 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $13,806,000 after acquiring an additional 753 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 155,352 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,734,000 after acquiring an additional 6,391 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

NASDAQ CAKE opened at $57.96 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.41. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 52-week low of $42.69 and a 52-week high of $69.70.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The restaurant operator reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.08. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 4.33% and a return on equity of 46.35%. The firm had revenue of $907.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CAKE. Oppenheimer set a $70.00 target price on Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Cheesecake Factory from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Citigroup decreased their target price 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. Finally, Argus dropped their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $72.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cheesecake Factory presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.41.

Cheesecake Factory Profile

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) is an American restaurant company and distributor renowned for its full-service casual-dining concept and specialty cheesecakes. Headquartered in Calabasas Hills, California, the company operates more than 200 restaurants under The Cheesecake Factory® brand across the United States, Puerto Rico and select international markets. In addition to sit-down dining, Cheesecake Factory franchised locations offer catering and take-out services, while a separate manufacturing arm supplies branded cheesecakes and desserts to supermarkets, hotels and other foodservice operators.

The origins of the brand trace back to a small cheesecake bakery founded in Detroit in the 1940s.