Sanctuary Advisors LLC Has $5.70 Million Stock Holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 23.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 29,088 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 5,615 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $5,702,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,190 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,144 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 15,983 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,941,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 44.8% during the first quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 181 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Glenview Trust co increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.9% in the second 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 and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on DRI. Evercore cut Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Guggenheim raised their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $228.88.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 9,930 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.21, for a total transaction of $2,047,665.30. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of DRI opened at $198.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.00 and a 12-month high of $220.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.71 billion, a PE ratio of 19.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $202.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.62.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 57.44% and a net margin of 9.13%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.98 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. This is a positive change from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.43%.

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.