Bellwether Advisors LLC Takes $1.26 Million Position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Bellwether Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,454 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,265,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in DRI. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 2.4% during 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 during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,144 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 15,983 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,941,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 44.8% during the 1st quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 181 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Glenview Trust co raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 1,308 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $285,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DRI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $272.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $228.88.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 9,930 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.21, for a total value of $2,047,665.30. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 4,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $858,864.65. The trade was a 70.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Stock Down 1.0%

DRI opened at $192.93 on Wednesday. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.00 and a 12 month high of $220.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $202.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $202.86. The company has a market cap of $22.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.60.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.03. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 57.44% and a net margin of 9.13%.The company had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.98 EPS. Darden Restaurants’s quarterly 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. On average, equities analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.28 EPS for the current 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 positive change from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.43%.

Darden Restaurants Company 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.