Beacon Investment Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Beacon Investment Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 52.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,360 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 11,346 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $1,907,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Torren Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 926.7% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 154 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the period. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Zions Bancorporation National Association UT lifted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 63.3% during the 4th quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT now owns 196 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DRI has been the subject of several research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded Darden Restaurants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Barclays upped their target price 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. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.16.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $209.30 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.25. The company has a market cap of $23.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $199.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $199.14. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.00 and a 1-year high of $228.27.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.01. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 53.54% and a net margin of 8.66%.The business had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.80 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 10.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 274 shares in the company, valued at $55,391.84. The trade was a 92.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $314,215.44. This trade represents a 15.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Darden Restaurants Profile

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.