New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Increases Position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 22.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,020 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,069 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $4,052,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,190 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 15,983 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,941,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Stonebrook Private Inc. increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.4% in the third quarter. Stonebrook Private Inc. now owns 13,425 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,556,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Glenview Trust co increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.9% in the second quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 1,308 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $285,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AGP Franklin LLC increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. AGP Franklin LLC now owns 13,137 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,418,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Douglas J. 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 value of $731,819.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,391.84. This trade represents a 92.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $58,296.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 1,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $314,215.44. The trade was a 15.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $227.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Stephens raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.24.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

DRI opened at $203.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.53, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a fifty day moving average of $197.77 and a 200 day moving average of $195.93. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $228.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.39.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its 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. The company had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.33 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 8.66% and a return on equity of 53.54%. Darden Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 10.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.49%.

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.