Sanctuary Advisors LLC Makes New $6.46 Million Investment in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Posted by Brenda Bartman on Aug 25th, 2026

Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 31,360 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $6,460,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position 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 worth $17,438,000 after acquiring an additional 2,553 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 2nd quarter worth $200,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 2,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $529,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 15.7% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,581 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in Darden Restaurants by 5.9% during 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 period. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DRI. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $235.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Evercore lowered Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $230.12.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on DRI

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of DRI stock opened at $225.56 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.60. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a one year low of $169.00 and a one year high of $229.76. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $208.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $204.61.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.63 by $0.03. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 57.44%. The company had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 9,930 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.21, for a total value of $2,047,665.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 4,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $858,864.65. This represents a 70.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John W. Wilkerson sold 8,864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $1,846,637.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 18,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,915,354.02. This represents a 32.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 70,185 shares of company stock valued at $14,636,984. 0.67% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.