Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. Buys Shares of 1,100 Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,100 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in Darden Restaurants by 50.9% in the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 175 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Darden Restaurants by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $451,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 13,371 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,497,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 9.8% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 697 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lion Street Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Lion Street Advisors LLC now owns 20,142 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,760,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DRI shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stephens raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $164.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $211.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $192.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $194.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.83 billion, a PE ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $190.76 and its 200 day moving average is $173.78. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 1 year low of $135.87 and a 1 year high of $203.12.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.03. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 50.12%. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.87%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.15%.

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.