Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Price Target Raised to $218.00 at Oppenheimer

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) had its price target boosted by research analysts at Oppenheimer from $200.00 to $218.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Oppenheimer’s target price points to a potential upside of 18.65% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp increased their target price on Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $211.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Evercore ISI raised 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 report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $189.12.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of DRI stock opened at $183.73 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $21.59 billion, a PE ratio of 21.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $173.22 and a 200-day moving average of $160.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.22. Darden Restaurants has a one year low of $135.87 and a one year high of $189.18.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last issued 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 49.46%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 9,264 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.68, for a total value of $1,710,875.52. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,567 shares in the company, valued at $843,433.56. The trade was a 66.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total value of $1,313,399.88. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 10,262 shares in the company, valued at $1,864,708.02. The trade was a 41.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.1% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 35,950 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,901,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Darden Restaurants by 21.9% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $7,944,000 after acquiring an additional 8,480 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at $777,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,806,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $459,216,000 after acquiring an additional 17,497 shares during the period. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 96,162.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 8,861,000 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,454,356,000 after acquiring an additional 8,851,795 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

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.