Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Price Target Raised to $276.00 at Bank of America

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) had its target price hoisted by Bank of America from $272.00 to $276.00 in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on DRI. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Stephens lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Barclays lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $227.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.88.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 2.4%

NYSE DRI opened at $198.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $22.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.60. Darden Restaurants has a 52 week low of $169.00 and a 52 week high of $228.27. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $197.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $197.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.01. The company 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%.Darden Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 10.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 10th were given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 10th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 63.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $314,215.44. The trade was a 15.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total value of $731,819.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,391.84. This represents a 92.96% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DRI. DV Trading LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 140.6% during the 1st quarter. DV Trading LLC now owns 1,203 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $236,000 after buying an additional 703 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,643 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $322,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 59,432 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $11,651,000 after buying an additional 559 shares during the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 9,923 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,945,000 after buying an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 7,859 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,541,000 after buying an additional 759 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.