Insider Selling: Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) SVP Sells 3,620 Shares of Stock

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) SVP Douglas Milanes sold 3,620 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction of $731,819.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,391.84. This represents a 92.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Darden Restaurants Stock Down 2.0%

NYSE DRI traded down $4.09 on Tuesday, hitting $197.77. 223,499 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,500,222. The company has a market cap of $22.65 billion, a PE ratio of 20.97, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.64. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.00 and a 12 month high of $228.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $203.60 and a 200-day moving average of $194.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.01. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 8.66% and a return on equity of 53.54%. The firm had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 10.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is 63.49%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 3.3% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 80,001 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,438,000 after acquiring an additional 2,553 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Darden Restaurants during the second quarter valued at about $200,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 3.2% in the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 2,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $529,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 15.7% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,581 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 5.9% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 18,183 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,964,000 after acquiring an additional 1,012 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Stephens increased their target price on Darden Restaurants from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.24.

About Darden Restaurants

Darden Restaurants, Inc is a multi-brand, full-service restaurant company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company owns and operates a portfolio of casual and fine-dining concepts that together serve millions of guests through company-owned and franchised locations. Its well-known brands include Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, alongside other dining concepts that span Italian, American, steakhouse and upscale casual formats.

Darden’s restaurants provide a range of guest-facing services including dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering, and feature menus tailored to each brand’s positioning—Italian-American fare at Olive Garden, steaks and grilled items at LongHorn, and more premium steakhouse and chef-driven offerings at its upscale concepts.