Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Insider Todd Burrowes Sells 15,783 Shares

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) insider Todd Burrowes sold 15,783 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.03, for a total transaction of $2,888,762.49. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 46,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,472,092.64. The trade was a 25.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DRI traded down $0.98 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $181.06. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 880,151 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,133,285. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.35. The company has a market cap of $21.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.31. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $175.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $161.47. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $189.18.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.46% and a net margin of 9.11%. The firm had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.84 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.15%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on DRI. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. UBS Group upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $189.12.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.1% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 35,950 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,901,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the period. QV Investors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 87,702 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,373,000 after acquiring an additional 3,580 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 21.9% during the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,944,000 after acquiring an additional 8,480 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,806,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $459,216,000 after purchasing an additional 17,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the third quarter valued at $777,000. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

About Darden Restaurants

Darden Restaurants, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. It operates under Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, and Capital Burger brand names.