Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $226.24.

DRI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $225.00 to $226.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Friday, March 20th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $235.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th.

Insider Activity

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $58,296.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $314,215.44. This trade represents a 15.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of Darden Restaurants 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,391.84. The trade was a 92.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DRI. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Darden Restaurants by 81.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,077,567 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,486,434,000 after buying an additional 3,613,781 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 78.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,666,919 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $507,675,000 after buying an additional 1,171,890 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 44.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,212,283 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $629,736,000 after acquiring an additional 991,230 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the fourth quarter valued at $144,483,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth about $113,301,000. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of DRI opened at $203.48 on Friday. Darden Restaurants has a one year low of $169.00 and a one year high of $228.27. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $197.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $195.64. 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 company has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.61.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.94 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.33 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 53.54% and a net margin of 8.66%.Darden Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.80 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 10.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 10th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is presently 63.49%.

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.