Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI – Get Rating) SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 3,516 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.73, for a total transaction of $466,678.68. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,242,207.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

DRI opened at $132.23 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $128.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.34. The firm has a market cap of $16.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.34, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.21. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a twelve month low of $110.96 and a twelve month high of $155.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 22nd. The restaurant operator reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $1.56. The business had revenue of $2.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.47 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.36% and a return on equity of 40.33%. The business's revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.76 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 7.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

Darden Restaurants announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, June 23rd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 6.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on DRI. Stephens began coverage on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Thursday, September 22nd. They set an "overweight" rating and a $140.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $143.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, June 24th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, June 24th. They set a "hold" rating and a $130.00 price target on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $136.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $144.10.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRI. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,652,000 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,303,338,000 after acquiring an additional 126,957 shares in the last quarter. JustInvest LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 76.6% during the 4th quarter. JustInvest LLC now owns 5,929 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $893,000 after acquiring an additional 2,572 shares in the last quarter. Resources Investment Advisors LLC. grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Resources Investment Advisors LLC. now owns 1,437 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $216,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 27,049 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $3,596,000 after acquiring an additional 3,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gibraltar Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants during the 1st quarter worth $386,000. 89.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

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Darden Restaurants, Inc, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. As of May 29, 2022, it owned and operated 1,867 restaurants, which included 884 under the Olive Garden brand, 546 under the LongHorn Steakhouse brand name, 172 under the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen brand, 85 under the Yard House brand name, 62 under The Capital Grille brand, 45 under the Seasons 52 brand name, 42 under the Bahama Breeze brand, 28 under the Eddie V's Prime Seafood brand name, and 3 under the Capital Burger brand; and franchised 60 restaurants comprising 35 under the Olive Garden brand, 18 under the LongHorn Steakhouse brand name, 4 under the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen brand, 2 under The Capital Grille brand name, and 1 under the Bahama Breeze brand.Darden Restaurants, Inc was founded in 1968 and is based in Orlando, Florida.

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