Cerity Partners LLC Purchases 2,330 Shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 21.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,448 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 2,330 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $2,207,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 234.3% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 6,712 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,122,000 after purchasing an additional 4,704 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 29,989 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in Darden Restaurants by 127.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 14,261 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,384,000 after buying an additional 7,983 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Darden Restaurants by 34.8% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 54.3% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,415 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $214,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Nana Mensah sold 1,171 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.90, for a total transaction of $201,294.90. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,719. The trade was a 99.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 42,403 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.68, for a total value of $7,279,747.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 58,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,075,040.80. This trade represents a 41.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 59,265 shares of company stock worth $10,116,030. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Darden Restaurants from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BTIG Research increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Darden Restaurants from $188.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $180.13.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $176.27 on Monday. 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 capitalization of $20.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.31. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $164.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $155.12. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52-week low of $135.87 and a 52-week high of $177.67.

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

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.40 dividend. This is an increase from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 64.59%.

Darden Restaurants 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.