Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. Has $663,000 Stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 24.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,550 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. increased its stake in Darden Restaurants by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 14,912 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,451 shares in the last quarter. QV Investors Inc. increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.3% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 380 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Darden Restaurants by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,944,000 after acquiring an additional 8,480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,806,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $459,216,000 after purchasing an additional 17,497 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DRI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Darden Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $180.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Raymond James lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America raised their price target 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. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.52.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

NYSE:DRI opened at $197.69 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $23.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $189.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $171.78. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a one year low of $135.87 and a one year high of $201.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.23.

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

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were issued 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 2.83%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 64.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total value of $1,313,399.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 10,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,864,708.02. The trade was a 41.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $766,948.30. The trade was a 66.85 % 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 valued at $9,850,129 in the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.