Public Sector Pension Investment Board Boosts Holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,000 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth $27,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 1,690.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Bangor Savings Bank raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 395.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DRI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. KeyCorp increased 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. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $164.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $180.88.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $169.75 on Friday. 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 $19.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.58, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.31. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 1 year low of $135.87 and a 1 year high of $177.67. The company’s fifty day moving average is $165.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $155.79.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 49.46% and a net margin of 9.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is 64.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 5,705 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.04, for a total transaction of $981,488.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $659,601.36. This represents a 59.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Nana Mensah sold 1,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.90, for a total transaction of $201,294.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,719. The trade was a 99.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 59,265 shares of company stock valued at $10,116,030 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.