Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Takes Position in The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 54,930 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.11% of Cheesecake Factory at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pathstone Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Cheesecake Factory by 0.9% in the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 37,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,522,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cheesecake Factory in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $723,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 597,901 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $24,245,000 after buying an additional 6,872 shares during the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the third quarter worth approximately $223,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory by 7.2% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,090 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $450,000 after buying an additional 749 shares during the last quarter. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.56, for a total transaction of $1,553,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 39,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,134,687.36. This represents a 42.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Up 0.4 %

CAKE stock opened at $48.70 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a PE ratio of 15.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.55. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.15. The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $33.05 and a fifty-two week high of $57.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. Cheesecake Factory’s payout ratio is currently 33.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CAKE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised shares of Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Wedbush lifted their target price on Cheesecake Factory from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cheesecake Factory from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.81.

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.