Cidel Asset Management Inc. Invests $7.99 Million in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Cidel Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 40,737 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $7,986,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 81.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,077,567 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,486,434,000 after acquiring an additional 3,613,781 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 78.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,666,919 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $507,675,000 after purchasing an additional 1,171,890 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $144,483,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $113,301,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 42.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,884,339 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $346,756,000 after purchasing an additional 563,237 shares during the period. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DRI. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $222.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Evercore downgraded Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.25.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

NYSE DRI opened at $211.45 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market cap of $24.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.38, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $200.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $200.38. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52-week low of $169.00 and a 52-week high of $224.94.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total value of $731,819.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 274 shares in the company, valued at $55,391.84. This represents a 92.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $58,296.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 1,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $314,215.44. This represents a 15.65% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Darden Restaurants

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.