Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Price Target Increased to $188.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) had its price target lifted by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $188.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 10.48% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on DRI. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $177.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $192.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Darden Restaurants from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $154.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.28.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of DRI opened at $170.17 on Friday. Darden Restaurants has a 1 year low of $133.36 and a 1 year high of $176.84. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $150.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $153.49. The company has a market capitalization of $20.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.97, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.38.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.80 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.82% and a net margin of 9.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.78 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Sarah H. King sold 15,941 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.06, for a total transaction of $2,344,283.46. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,735.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Sarah H. King sold 15,941 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.06, for a total value of $2,344,283.46. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,735.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 2,500 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.09, for a total value of $352,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,649,483.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants in the fourth quarter worth $252,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $58,601,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 62.6% during the 4th quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 2,255 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 868 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Darden Restaurants by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,874 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $472,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Darden Restaurants by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 2,117 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $348,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Darden Restaurants

Darden Restaurants, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. It operates under Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, and Capital Burger brand names.