Morgan Stanley Raises Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) Price Target to $40.00

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) had its price target upped by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $37.00 to $40.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “underweight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 26.81% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on CAKE. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $56.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded Cheesecake Factory from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Cheesecake Factory from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.19.

Cheesecake Factory Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CAKE opened at $54.65 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $51.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.46. The company has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.44. Cheesecake Factory has a fifty-two week low of $33.05 and a fifty-two week high of $57.32.

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $920.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million. Cheesecake Factory had a return on equity of 45.89% and a net margin of 4.38%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cheesecake Factory will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cheesecake Factory

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the third quarter valued at approximately $973,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 9.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 255,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,364,000 after acquiring an additional 22,416 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,142,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $270,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 32.7% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 403,271 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,353,000 after acquiring an additional 99,341 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.48% of the company’s stock.

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.