Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Earns “Equal Weight” Rating from Stephens

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by Stephens in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $205.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock. Stephens’ target price points to a potential upside of 2.24% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on DRI. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $200.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 15th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $234.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.63.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 1.6%

NYSE DRI opened at $200.50 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.39. Darden Restaurants has a one year low of $169.00 and a one year high of $228.27. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $208.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $194.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a PE ratio of 21.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.61.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 18th. The restaurant operator reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.10 by ($0.02). Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 52.44% and a net margin of 8.92%.The business had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.03 EPS. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 2,635 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.36, for a total transaction of $546,393.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 4,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $849,761.28. This trade represents a 39.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Todd Burrowes sold 7,103 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.12, for a total value of $1,471,173.36. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 44,252 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,165,474.24. The trade was a 13.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 18,770 shares of company stock worth $3,948,970. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DRI. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in 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 worth $1,486,434,000 after buying an additional 3,613,781 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 78.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,666,919 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $507,675,000 after acquiring an additional 1,171,890 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at $144,483,000. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 820.4% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 706,416 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $153,977,000 after acquiring an additional 629,669 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter worth $113,301,000. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.