William Blair Cuts Earnings Estimates for Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) – Analysts at William Blair lowered their Q1 2025 earnings estimates for shares of Cheesecake Factory in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, April 22nd. William Blair analyst S. Zackfia now anticipates that the restaurant operator will post earnings per share of $0.82 for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $0.83. William Blair currently has a “Outperform” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Cheesecake Factory’s current full-year earnings is $3.71 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Cheesecake Factory’s Q2 2025 earnings at $1.10 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $3.73 EPS.

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. Cheesecake Factory had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 45.89%. The business had revenue of $920.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $912.67 million.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Cheesecake Factory from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $67.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Cheesecake Factory from $50.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of Cheesecake Factory from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cheesecake Factory has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.06.

Cheesecake Factory Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CAKE opened at $50.48 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.44 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The business has a 50-day moving average of $49.33 and a 200-day moving average of $48.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.78, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.24. Cheesecake Factory has a fifty-two week low of $33.44 and a fifty-two week high of $57.32.

Institutional Trading of Cheesecake Factory

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CAKE. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Cheesecake Factory by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 360,718 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,112,000 after buying an additional 32,000 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Cheesecake Factory during the 4th quarter worth approximately $489,000. Ruffer LLP bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,401,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cheesecake Factory in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,513,000. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new stake in Cheesecake Factory during the fourth quarter worth $972,000. 94.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cheesecake Factory

In other news, Chairman David Overton sold 100,000 shares of Cheesecake Factory stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.08, for a total value of $5,308,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 3,092,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $164,131,162.76. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Matthew Eliot Clark sold 29,000 shares of the 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 directly owns 39,856 shares in the company, valued at $2,134,687.36. This represents a 42.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 8.10% of the company’s stock.

Cheesecake Factory Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. Cheesecake Factory’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.