Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Earns Equal Weight Rating from Stephens

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reiterated by Stephens in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $210.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock. Stephens’ price objective would indicate a potential downside of 0.57% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on DRI. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $238.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Bank of America upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $272.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $222.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $227.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.21.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $211.21 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $199.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $199.36. Darden Restaurants has a 12-month low of $169.00 and a 12-month high of $228.27. The company has a market capitalization of $24.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $314,215.44. This represents a 15.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total transaction 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 approximately $55,391.84. This trade represents a 92.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,161,277 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,790,128,000 after acquiring an additional 322,079 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,063,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,587,939,000 after acquiring an additional 43,965 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 81.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,077,567 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,486,434,000 after purchasing an additional 3,613,781 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,189,868 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $771,020,000 after purchasing an additional 68,245 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 44.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,212,283 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $629,736,000 after purchasing an additional 991,230 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

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.