Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $215.91 and last traded at $215.33, with a volume of 406866 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $214.21.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on DRI. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $218.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Darden Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Stephens raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.38.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.77, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.74. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $202.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $191.10.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.80. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 50.12%. The firm had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 63.13%.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 20,518 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $4,271,642.42. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 58,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,249,066.84. The trade was a 25.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Laura B. Williamson sold 2,289 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.26, for a total transaction of $474,418.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,056 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,084,206.56. This represents a 18.54% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,613 shares of company stock valued at $5,121,492 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $642,967,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 46,484.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 928,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $192,987,000 after purchasing an additional 926,901 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants in the first quarter valued at approximately $84,801,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $75,137,000. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,919,000. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

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.