Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Shares Sold by RWA Wealth Partners LLC

RWA Wealth Partners LLC decreased its stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 19.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,604 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 392 shares during the quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $299,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MCF Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 50.9% during the 4th quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 175 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Darden Restaurants by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $451,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 13,371 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,497,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 1,401 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lion Street Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Lion Street Advisors LLC now owns 20,142 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,760,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DRI has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $223.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $218.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.08.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 0.9 %

DRI stock opened at $209.60 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company has a market cap of $24.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $195.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $179.32. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $135.87 and a 52 week high of $211.00.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.80. The company had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.60 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, 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 transaction of $1,710,875.52. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,567 shares in the company, valued at $843,433.56. The trade was a 66.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 20,518 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $4,271,642.42. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 58,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,249,066.84. The trade was a 25.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 70,311 shares of company stock worth $13,658,221 over the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.