Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Now Covered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI – Get Rating) in a research report report published on Thursday. The brokerage issued a buy rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on DRI. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Darden Restaurants from $150.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a report on Monday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $150.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, March 10th. Citigroup upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $156.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 7th. Barclays upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $148.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, January 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered Darden Restaurants from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and upped their price target for the company from $134.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $154.76.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $148.50 on Thursday. Darden Restaurants has a 12 month low of $110.96 and a 12 month high of $152.08. The company has a market cap of $18.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $147.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $140.50.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The restaurant operator reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.11. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 42.51% and a net margin of 9.10%. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 7.83 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In other news, SVP Richard L. Renninger sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.99, for a total transaction of $739,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 22,368 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,310,240.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Richard L. Renninger sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.99, for a total transaction of $739,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 22,368 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,310,240.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 2,229 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $334,350.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $799,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 9,229 shares of company stock worth $1,358,200. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DRI. Clear Perspectives Financial Planning LLC bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Heritage Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Kistler Tiffany Companies LLC bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

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Darden Restaurants, Inc is a full-service restaurant company, which engages in the provision of restaurant services. It operates through the following segments: Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Fine Dining, and Other Business. The Olive Garden segment is the largest full-service dining Italian restaurant operator.