Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Declares $1.40 Quarterly Dividend

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 19th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the restaurant operator on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th.

Darden Restaurants has raised its dividend payment by an average of 16.3% per year over the last three years. Darden Restaurants has a payout ratio of 48.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Darden Restaurants to earn $10.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.1%.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

NYSE:DRI opened at $184.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.69 billion, a PE ratio of 21.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $189.18. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $172.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $160.41.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 49.46%. Darden Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.84 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 10,262 shares in the company, valued at $1,864,708.02. The trade was a 41.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DRI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Darden Restaurants from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Darden Restaurants from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $165.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Darden Restaurants from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. One 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $189.12.

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.