California State Teachers Retirement System Raises Holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 25,118.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 35,137,478 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,998,143 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.31% of Darden Restaurants worth $7,238,672,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 3.3% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 80,001 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,438,000 after buying an additional 2,553 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants in the 2nd quarter worth $200,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 2,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $529,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 15.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,581 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 18,183 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,964,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $228.00 to $237.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $272.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Argus raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Evercore cut shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $230.50.

Darden Restaurants Stock Down 1.9%

Darden Restaurants stock opened at $212.82 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $209.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $204.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $24.28 billion, a PE ratio of 20.50, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.60. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $229.76.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.03. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 57.44% and a net margin of 9.13%.The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.25 EPS for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were given a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 62.43%.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 39,134 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.06, for a total transaction of $8,181,354.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 86,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,009,682.76. The trade was a 31.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Susan Connelly sold 9,930 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.21, for a total transaction of $2,047,665.30. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 4,165 shares in the company, valued at $858,864.65. This trade represents a 70.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 70,185 shares of company stock worth $14,636,984 in the last ninety days. 0.67% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

Darden Restaurants, Inc is a multi-brand, full-service restaurant company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company owns and operates a portfolio of casual and fine-dining concepts that together serve millions of guests through company-owned and franchised locations. Its well-known brands include Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, alongside other dining concepts that span Italian, American, steakhouse and upscale casual formats.

Darden’s restaurants provide a range of guest-facing services including dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering, and feature menus tailored to each brand’s positioning—Italian-American fare at Olive Garden, steaks and grilled items at LongHorn, and more premium steakhouse and chef-driven offerings at its upscale concepts.