Rajesh Vennam Sells 8,478 Shares of Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Stock

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 8,478 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $1,780,380.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 8,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,799,490. The trade was a 49.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Darden Restaurants Stock Down 2.4%

Darden Restaurants stock traded down $5.14 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $207.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,636,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,402,352. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $220.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $23.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $203.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $203.15.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.03. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 57.44% and a net margin of 9.13%.The business had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.98 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. This is a positive change from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.43%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Weiss Ratings lowered Darden Restaurants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $238.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $228.88.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,161,277 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,790,128,000 after purchasing an additional 322,079 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,063,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,587,939,000 after purchasing an additional 43,965 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 81.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,077,567 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,486,434,000 after purchasing an additional 3,613,781 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Darden Restaurants by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,189,868 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $771,020,000 after buying an additional 68,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Darden Restaurants by 44.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,212,283 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $629,736,000 after buying an additional 991,230 shares during the period. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Darden Restaurants

Darden Restaurants, Inc is a multi-brand, full-service restaurant company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company owns and operates a portfolio of casual and fine-dining concepts that together serve millions of guests through company-owned and franchised locations. Its well-known brands include Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, alongside other dining concepts that span Italian, American, steakhouse and upscale casual formats.

Darden’s restaurants provide a range of guest-facing services including dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering, and feature menus tailored to each brand’s positioning—Italian-American fare at Olive Garden, steaks and grilled items at LongHorn, and more premium steakhouse and chef-driven offerings at its upscale concepts.