Vinva Investment Management Ltd Raises Holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 121.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,903 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,685 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $817,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRI. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 9.8% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 697 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 676 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $111,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 34.8% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 3,833 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $629,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $215,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on DRI shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $188.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.13.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other news, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 42,403 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.68, for a total transaction of $7,279,747.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 3,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.43, for a total transaction of $542,587.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,005,911.65. This trade represents a 35.04 % 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 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of DRI opened at $176.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.31. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52-week low of $135.87 and a 52-week high of $177.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $164.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $155.08.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.75 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.80 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.78 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued 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 dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is presently 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.