Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Receives Outperform Rating from Oppenheimer

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Oppenheimer in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $200.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock, up from their previous price target of $182.00. Oppenheimer’s target price points to a potential upside of 9.03% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on DRI. UBS Group boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $164.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $192.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $185.56.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 0.0 %

NYSE DRI traded down $0.01 during trading on Friday, hitting $183.43. The stock had a trading volume of 852,420 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,240,655. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $21.55 billion, a PE ratio of 21.16, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $166.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.99. Darden Restaurants has a twelve month low of $135.87 and a twelve month high of $188.82.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.03. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 49.46%. The firm had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 5,705 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.04, for a total transaction of $981,488.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 3,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $659,601.36. The trade was a 59.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 3,000 shares of Darden Restaurants 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 owns 12,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,057,743.30. This trade represents a 19.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 59,265 shares of company stock valued at $10,116,030. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,944,000 after buying an additional 8,480 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $777,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,806,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $459,216,000 after purchasing an additional 17,497 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 8,851,795 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 523.9% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 194,937 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,995,000 after buying an additional 163,693 shares during the last quarter. 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.