Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) to Issue $1.40 Quarterly Dividend

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 19th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the restaurant operator on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.50%.

Darden Restaurants has increased its dividend by an average of 62.3% annually over the last three years. Darden Restaurants has a dividend payout ratio of 53.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Darden Restaurants to earn $10.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.1%.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

DRI opened at $159.87 on Thursday. Darden Restaurants has a twelve month low of $135.87 and a twelve month high of $177.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.78 billion, a PE ratio of 18.44, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $165.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $156.81.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.46% and a net margin of 9.11%. The business’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 5,705 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.04, for a total value of $981,488.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,834 shares in the company, valued at $659,601.36. This represents a 59.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 42,403 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.68, for a total transaction of $7,279,747.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 58,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,075,040.80. This represents a 41.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 59,265 shares of company stock valued at $10,116,030. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on DRI. Evercore ISI raised shares of Darden Restaurants from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Barclays raised their target price on Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $159.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $180.46.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

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.