40,737 Shares in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI Purchased by Cidel Asset Management Inc.

Cidel Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 40,737 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $7,986,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,161,277 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,790,128,000 after purchasing an additional 322,079 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 43,965 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 81.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,077,567 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,486,434,000 after purchasing an additional 3,613,781 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,189,868 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $771,020,000 after purchasing an additional 68,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,918,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $537,001,000 after purchasing an additional 251,246 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DRI has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded Darden Restaurants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $238.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned 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 target price of $227.25.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 0.3%

DRI opened at $211.45 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $200.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $200.38. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $224.94. The company has a market cap of $24.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,391.84. This represents a 92.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares in the company, valued at $314,215.44. This represents a 15.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.