Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Given New $180.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) had its target price trimmed by Stifel Nicolaus from $190.00 to $180.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on DRI. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an in-line rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $177.00 to $170.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Raymond James reissued an outperform rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (down previously from $175.00) on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $187.00 to $180.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $173.76.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:DRI opened at $153.28 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $150.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $159.64. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $133.36 and a fifty-two week high of $176.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.25.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.04. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.94% and a net margin of 9.24%. The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, March 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Darden Restaurants Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 61.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 4,707 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.15, for a total value of $734,998.05. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,179 shares in the company, valued at $2,994,800.85. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 4,707 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.15, for a total transaction of $734,998.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,179 shares in the company, valued at $2,994,800.85. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 7,673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.52, for a total value of $1,270,034.96. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,848,268.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,599 shares of company stock worth $2,197,891 over the last ninety days. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 34.8% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 17.1% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 327,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $54,427,000 after purchasing an additional 47,915 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 4.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 846,994 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $141,553,000 after purchasing an additional 34,174 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 127.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 14,261 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,384,000 after purchasing an additional 7,983 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 395.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,563 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,279,000 after purchasing an additional 29,989 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.