Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Acquires Shares of 32,631 Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 32,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $6,722,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 3.3% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 80,001 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,438,000 after buying an additional 2,553 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Darden Restaurants during the 2nd quarter valued at $200,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 2,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $529,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 15.7% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,151,000 after acquiring an additional 2,581 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 18,183 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,964,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DRI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens upped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $235.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $238.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Darden Restaurants from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Argus increased their target price on Darden Restaurants from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $230.50.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.7%

NYSE:DRI opened at $215.75 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $209.14 and a 200-day moving average of $204.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.61 billion, a PE ratio of 20.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.60. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.00 and a 52 week high of $229.76.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. Analysts predict that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.25 EPS for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 10th. This is a positive change from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Laura B. Williamson sold 443 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.89, for a total transaction of $90,766.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,536 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,134,271.04. The trade was a 7.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 39,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.06, for a total transaction of $8,181,354.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 86,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,009,682.76. This represents a 31.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 70,185 shares of company stock valued at $14,636,984 in the last three months. 0.67% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

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.