4,656 Shares in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI Acquired by Icon Wealth Advisors LLC

Icon Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,656 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $857,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC purchased a new position in Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at about $324,000. Baldwin Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 12,046 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,217,000 after buying an additional 1,323 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Darden Restaurants by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 898,642 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $165,368,000 after acquiring an additional 28,463 shares during the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 10,593 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,949,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $1,511,000. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total value of $731,819.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 274 shares in the company, valued at $55,391.84. This trade represents a 92.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $58,296.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $314,215.44. This trade represents a 15.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

NYSE:DRI opened at $211.42 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.39. The company has a fifty day moving average of $198.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $198.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.22 billion, a PE ratio of 22.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.60. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $228.27.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.01. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 8.66% and a return on equity of 53.54%. The company had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 10th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.49%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on DRI. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $227.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Stephens upped 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $222.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.88.

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.