Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Receives $174.24 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-two ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and seventeen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $171.95.

Several research firms recently issued reports on DRI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $176.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $190.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $177.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 4,707 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,994,800.85. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DRI. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 2,274 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $326,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,669,789 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $239,148,000 after acquiring an additional 202,139 shares during the period. Comerica Bank bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $7,743,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $220,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 329,247 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $47,155,000 after acquiring an additional 23,465 shares during the period. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

DRI stock opened at $142.27 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $16.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.70, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Darden Restaurants has a 12-month low of $133.36 and a 12-month high of $176.84. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $148.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.02.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 49.82%. Darden Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 9.5 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Darden Restaurants Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 65.73%.

Darden Restaurants Company 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.