Maverick Capital Ltd. Acquires Shares of 28,144 Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Maverick Capital Ltd. acquired a new stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 28,144 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $4,619,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth $27,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth $30,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth $31,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC boosted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1,690.9% during the third quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 34.8% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 42,403 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 58,685 shares in the company, valued at $10,075,040.80. This trade represents a 41.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 3,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.43, for a total transaction of $542,587.60. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,005,911.65. This trade represents a 35.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 59,265 shares of company stock worth $10,116,030 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on DRI shares. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $192.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.13.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of DRI opened at $176.42 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $164.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $154.89. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $135.87 and a 52 week high of $177.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $20.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.31.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.80 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.46% and a net margin of 9.11%. Darden Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.40 per share. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.59%.

Darden Restaurants 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.