Retireful LLC Acquires Shares of 8,495 Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Retireful LLC bought a new position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 8,495 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,586,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of DRI. QV Investors Inc. boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 87,702 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $16,373,000 after acquiring an additional 3,580 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.1% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 35,950 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,901,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 21.9% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,944,000 after purchasing an additional 8,480 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,806,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $459,216,000 after purchasing an additional 17,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth $777,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Evercore ISI upgraded Darden Restaurants from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $190.00 to $180.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Darden Restaurants in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $183.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $189.12.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $181.28 on Friday. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a twelve month low of $135.87 and a twelve month high of $189.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.76, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.31. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $161.60.

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

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In other news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 9,264 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.68, for a total value of $1,710,875.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $843,433.56. This represents a 66.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total transaction of $1,313,399.88. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 10,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,864,708.02. This represents a 41.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,275 shares of company stock worth $5,913,038. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.