Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Receives $192.52 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $201.36.

A number of research firms have recently commented on DRI. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $223.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $192.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 12,759 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.37, for a total transaction of $2,390,653.83. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 14,328 shares in the company, valued at $2,684,637.36. This represents a 47.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 7,892 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 owns 3,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $766,948.30. This trade represents a 66.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 45,698 shares of company stock worth $8,536,729 in the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,707,456 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $772,635,000 after purchasing an additional 26,601 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,750,658 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $700,210,000 after purchasing an additional 170,336 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at $642,967,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,845,302 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $530,121,000 after purchasing an additional 39,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,609,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $300,446,000 after purchasing an additional 4,454 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $199.92 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.85. The company has a market cap of $23.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $203.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.37.

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

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.80%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.15%.

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.