Brokerages Set Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) PT at $229.32

Shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seventeen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $229.32.

DRI has been the topic of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Thursday, June 18th.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

NYSE:DRI opened at $204.46 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $202.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $202.16. Darden Restaurants has a 52 week low of $169.00 and a 52 week high of $220.65. The stock has a market cap of $23.42 billion, a PE ratio of 19.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.73 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 57.44%. The company’s revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.98 EPS. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 11.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a $1.62 dividend. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.80%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of the business’s 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 directly owned 274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,391.84. The trade was a 92.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Meridian Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,404,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 33.0% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 23,473 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,319,000 after purchasing an additional 5,830 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 78.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,666,919 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $507,675,000 after purchasing an additional 1,171,890 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 313.9% in the fourth quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,598 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,502,000 after purchasing an additional 10,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 61,922 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $11,395,000 after purchasing an additional 5,348 shares during the period. 93.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.