Nicholas Investment Partners LP Acquires New Holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Nicholas Investment Partners LP acquired a new stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 4,482 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $923,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Meridian Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth about $2,404,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 33.0% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 23,473 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,319,000 after acquiring an additional 5,830 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,063,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,587,939,000 after buying an additional 43,965 shares during the period. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 313.9% in the fourth quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,598 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,502,000 after buying an additional 10,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 61,922 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $11,395,000 after buying an additional 5,348 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In related news, insider John W. Wilkerson sold 8,864 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $1,846,637.12. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 18,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,915,354.02. This represents a 32.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 39,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.06, for a total transaction of $8,181,354.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 86,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,009,682.76. This represents a 31.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 70,185 shares of company stock valued at $14,636,984. 0.67% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DRI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore lowered Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Bank of America raised their price target on Darden Restaurants from $272.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.12.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Darden Restaurants stock opened at $225.56 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.21 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 $229.76. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $208.63 and its 200-day moving average is $204.61.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.72 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.98 EPS. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. Equities research 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 was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. This is an increase from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 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.