Jupiter Topco LLC Purchases Shares of 64,165 Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 64,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $13,221,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,015,109,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 81.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 44.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,212,283 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $629,736,000 after buying an additional 991,230 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the second quarter valued at $204,099,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter valued at $144,483,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 2.2%

DRI opened at $215.77 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $24.62 billion, a PE ratio of 20.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.60. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.00 and a twelve month high of $229.76. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $209.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $204.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.03. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 57.44% and a net margin of 9.13%.The company had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.98 EPS. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were paid a $1.62 dividend. This is a boost 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 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.43%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DRI. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Argus upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Darden Restaurants from $272.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $230.50.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In related news, insider Laura B. Williamson sold 443 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.89, for a total transaction of $90,766.27. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,536 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,134,271.04. The trade was a 7.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 39,134 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.06, for a total value of $8,181,354.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 86,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,009,682.76. This represents a 31.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 70,185 shares of company stock valued at $14,636,984. Insiders own 0.67% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Company 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.