WINTON GROUP Ltd Reduces Stock Position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

WINTON GROUP Ltd reduced its holdings in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE - Free Report) by 71.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,672 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 11,684 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd's holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 108.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 616 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 1,149.5% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,312 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 1,207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 46.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,321 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $110,000 after purchasing an additional 741 shares during the last quarter. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CAKE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays raised their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target 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 assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $52.38.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Cheesecake Factory

In other Cheesecake Factory news, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total value 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. The trade was a 42.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.08, for a total value of $5,308,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 3,092,147 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $164,131,162.76. This trade 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 currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CAKE traded down $1.11 on Friday, reaching $45.68. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,053,909 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,163,059. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 52-week low of $33.05 and a 52-week high of $57.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.24. The stock's 50-day moving average is $51.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.44 and a quick ratio of 0.33.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE - Get Free Report) 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. 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.36%. Cheesecake Factory's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.