Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.01, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.33 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 52.44% and a net margin of 8.92%.Darden Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.80 EPS.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE:DRI opened at $200.50 on Thursday. Darden Restaurants has a 52-week low of $169.00 and a 52-week high of $228.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $23.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $208.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 2,635 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.36, for a total value of $546,393.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 4,098 shares in the company, valued at $849,761.28. This represents a 39.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John W. Wilkerson sold 2,258 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.00, for a total value of $480,954.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 17,784 shares in the company, valued at $3,787,992. This represents a 11.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 18,770 shares of company stock worth $3,948,970 in the last three months. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Darden Restaurants

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRI. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.0% in the second quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 1,565 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $341,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,467 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $320,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,649 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $304,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the period. Glenview Trust co boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 1,308 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $285,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Polymer Capital Management US LLC acquired a new position in Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at about $264,000. Institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DRI has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, December 19th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.63.

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.