Darden Restaurants’ (DRI) “Hold” Rating Reiterated at TD Cowen

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reissued by equities researchers at TD Cowen in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $150.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock. TD Cowen’s target price points to a potential downside of 5.74% from the stock’s previous close.

DRI has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Argus cut their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $186.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $154.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $170.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.18.

Darden Restaurants Stock Down 1.5 %

DRI stock opened at $159.14 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $149.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.99 billion, a PE ratio of 18.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.30. Darden Restaurants has a 12 month low of $133.36 and a 12 month high of $176.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.24.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.04. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 49.82%. The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Sarah H. King sold 15,941 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.06, for a total transaction of $2,344,283.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,735.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Sarah H. King sold 15,941 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.06, for a total transaction of $2,344,283.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,735.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 2,500 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.09, for a total transaction of $352,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,649,483.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,216,000. Farmers National Bank lifted its position in Darden Restaurants by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 3,515 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $532,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,856,000. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in Darden Restaurants by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 71,780 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,862,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Darden Restaurants by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $215,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.