Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Shares Gap Up Following Dividend Announcement

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock had previously closed at $188.15, but opened at $198.41. Darden Restaurants shares last traded at $200.83, with a volume of 399,776 shares changing hands.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is presently 64.15%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on DRI shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $193.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Citigroup dropped their target price on Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Darden Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $215.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. 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 report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $193.33.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 7.7 %

The firm has a market cap of $23.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $191.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.15. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.80. The company had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. Darden Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.60 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Darden Restaurants news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of Darden Restaurants 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 owns 10,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,864,708.02. The trade was a 41.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Todd Burrowes sold 15,783 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.03, for a total value of $2,888,762.49. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 46,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,472,092.64. This represents a 25.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,926 shares of company stock worth $9,850,129 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of DRI. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $642,967,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 111.0% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,469,083 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $241,121,000 after acquiring an additional 772,907 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter worth approximately $75,137,000. Junto Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter worth approximately $48,919,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in Darden Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,048,000. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.