Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Price Target Increased to $173.00 by Analysts at Barclays

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 25th, 2023

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI – Get Rating) had its price objective boosted by Barclays from $168.00 to $173.00 in a research note released on Friday, The Fly reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Darden Restaurants in a research report on Monday, January 23rd. They set an equal weight rating and a $155.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $175.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Wednesday, March 15th. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $134.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 29th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $150.00 to $160.00 in a report on Friday, December 9th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, March 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $159.85.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

NYSE DRI opened at $152.58 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $147.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $141.12. The firm has a market cap of $18.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.92, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.31. Darden Restaurants has a 1 year low of $110.96 and a 1 year high of $154.14.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.24 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.73 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.10% and a return on equity of 42.51%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 7.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 10th will be issued a $1.21 dividend. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 6th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 63.19%.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, insider Melvin John Martin sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.95, for a total value of $283,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,755,069.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Richard L. Renninger sold 5,000 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.99, for a total value of $739,950.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,368 shares in the company, valued at $3,310,240.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.95, for a total value of $283,900.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 12,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,755,069.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,229 shares of company stock valued at $1,358,200. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DRI. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 223.4% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,549,545 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $214,349,000 after buying an additional 1,070,472 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 15.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,757,686 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $727,311,000 after acquiring an additional 763,728 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 51.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,573,384 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $217,646,000 after purchasing an additional 532,340 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 33.5% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,572,849 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $209,110,000 after purchasing an additional 394,786 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,373,923 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,911,012,000 after purchasing an additional 362,658 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

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Darden Restaurants, Inc is a full-service restaurant company, which engages in the provision of restaurant services. It operates through the following segments: Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Fine Dining, and Other Business. The Olive Garden segment is the largest full-service dining Italian restaurant operator.

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