Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Price Target Raised to $230.00

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) had its price target raised by investment analysts at Oppenheimer from $218.00 to $230.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price target points to a potential upside of 15.05% from the company’s current price.

DRI has been the subject of several other research reports. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $211.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Thursday. One 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 company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.36.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:DRI opened at $199.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.23. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $203.47. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $192.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.73. The stock has a market cap of $23.42 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.80. The company had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.60 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total value of $1,313,399.88. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 10,262 shares in the company, valued at $1,864,708.02. This represents a 41.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 7,892 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.95, for a total value of $1,546,437.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 3,914 shares in the company, valued at $766,948.30. The trade was a 66.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,926 shares of company stock worth $9,850,129. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DRI. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in Darden Restaurants in the third quarter valued at about $682,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in Darden Restaurants in the third quarter valued at about $409,000. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 93.8% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 11,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,952,000 after acquiring an additional 5,756 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 111.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,469,083 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $241,121,000 after acquiring an additional 772,907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 3.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,580,322 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $587,638,000 after acquiring an additional 123,900 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

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.