Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Given New $205.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) had its price target hoisted by Stifel Nicolaus from $190.00 to $205.00 in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $165.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $192.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $186.60.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE:DRI opened at $187.59 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Darden Restaurants has a 12 month low of $135.87 and a 12 month high of $188.88. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $166.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $156.99.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.03. The firm had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.46% and a net margin of 9.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.84 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.59%.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, insider Melvin John Martin sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.30, for a total transaction of $489,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,601 shares in the company, valued at $2,057,743.30. This represents a 19.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 5,705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $659,601.36. This represents a 59.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 59,265 shares of company stock valued at $10,116,030 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter worth $27,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC raised its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 1,690.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bangor Savings Bank raised its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 395.0% in the 3rd quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

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.