Analysts Set Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Target Price at $180.88

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-four brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and sixteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $180.88.

DRI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $184.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 5,705 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.04, for a total value of $981,488.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $659,601.36. This trade represents a 59.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.30, for a total value of $489,900.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,057,743.30. The trade was a 19.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 59,265 shares of company stock valued at $10,116,030. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Darden Restaurants by 824.5% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 40,741 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,687,000 after acquiring an additional 36,334 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,081,000. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 35,950 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,901,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $326,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,133 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $515,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $168.61 on Friday. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $177.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.45, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.22. The business has a 50-day moving average of $165.10 and a 200-day moving average of $155.99.

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

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 64.59%.

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.