MGO One Seven LLC Buys 5,380 Shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

MGO One Seven LLC lifted its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 19.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 32,694 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 5,380 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $6,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 83.0% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,870 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,080,000 after buying an additional 2,662 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth $272,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 248,254 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $46,476,000 after acquiring an additional 13,802 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 37.8% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 70,634 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $12,998,000 after acquiring an additional 19,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 63.6% in the fourth quarter. Millstone Evans Group LLC now owns 1,286 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $237,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.6%

DRI stock opened at $196.28 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $200.13 and a 200-day moving average of $194.77. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $228.27. The company has a market capitalization of $22.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.77, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.39.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.94 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.33 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 53.54% and a net margin of 8.66%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.80 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 10.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 63.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Darden Restaurants 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,391.84. The trade was a 92.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $58,296.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $314,215.44. This represents a 15.65% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Darden Restaurants from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Melius Research raised shares of Darden Restaurants from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.24.

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.