Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 15,600 Shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) by 68.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 38,417 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 15,600 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Cheesecake Factory were worth $1,823,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 5.2% in the fourth 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 period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position 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 stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 95,100 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,512,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CAKE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Wedbush upped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $56.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.75.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

Shares of CAKE stock opened at $47.87 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 14.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.24. 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 Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a 12 month low of $33.44 and a 12 month high of $57.32. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.49.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $920.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $912.67 million. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 45.89%. Analysts forecast that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is 33.75%.

Insider Transactions at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.08, for a total transaction of $5,308,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 3,092,147 shares in the company, valued at $164,131,162.76. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 39,856 shares in the company, valued at $2,134,687.36. This trade represents a 42.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.