Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.40 on May 1st

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the restaurant operator on Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th.

Darden Restaurants has raised its dividend payment by an average of 9.7% per year over the last three years. Darden Restaurants has a dividend payout ratio of 48.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Darden Restaurants to earn $10.64 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 52.6%.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $199.92 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.90, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Darden Restaurants has a 1-year low of $135.87 and a 1-year high of $203.47. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $192.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.60.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.80. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Darden Restaurants news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total transaction of $1,313,399.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 10,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,864,708.02. The trade was a 41.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 9,264 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $843,433.56. This represents a 66.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,926 shares of company stock worth $9,850,129 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on DRI shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $217.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Darden Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $180.00 to $215.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $218.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Raymond James upped their target price on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.36.

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.