Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 10th

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of 1.50 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, May 1st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 10th.

Darden Restaurants has increased its dividend by an average of 0.2%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 4 years. Darden Restaurants has a payout ratio of 52.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Darden Restaurants to earn $10.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.4%.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $190.69 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Darden Restaurants has a 12 month low of $169.00 and a 12 month high of $228.27. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $205.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.50.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.94 by $0.01. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 53.54% and a net margin of 8.66%.The company had revenue of $3.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on DRI. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Barclays raised their price objective 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, Citigroup raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $235.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. 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 stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.24.

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.