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

Shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $180.13.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BTIG Research lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $159.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

DRI opened at $164.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.97, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a fifty day moving average of $163.32 and a 200 day moving average of $153.77. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $176.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.35.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.83 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.80 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 49.46%. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.78 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 64.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, insider Melvin John Martin sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.30, for a total value of $489,900.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,057,743.30. This represents a 19.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 3,320 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.43, for a total value of $542,587.60. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,005,911.65. This represents a 35.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 59,265 shares of company stock valued at $10,116,030. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DRI. ESL Trust Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Wolff Wiese Magana LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 1,690.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.