SFE Investment Counsel Buys New Position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

SFE Investment Counsel bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 5,665 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of DRI. Torren Management LLC purchased a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Union Savings Bank acquired a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 44.8% in the first quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 181 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE DRI opened at $225.31 on Friday. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.00 and a 52 week high of $229.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $206.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $203.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.70 billion, a PE ratio of 21.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.60.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.72 billion for 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 business earned $2.98 EPS. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th were issued a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.43%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DRI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $238.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Monday, June 22nd. 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 note on Friday, June 26th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Evercore lowered Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. 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 Buying and Selling

In other Darden Restaurants news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 8,478 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $1,780,380.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,799,490. The trade was a 49.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John W. Wilkerson sold 8,864 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $1,846,637.12. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 18,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,915,354.02. This trade represents a 32.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 70,185 shares of company stock valued at $14,636,984 over the last 90 days. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.