GLOBALT Investments LLC GA Cuts Position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

GLOBALT Investments LLC GA lessened its stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI - Free Report) by 92.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,230 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 40,388 shares during the quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA's holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Lindsay L. Koren sold 300 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total value of $58,296.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 1,617 shares of the company's stock, valued at $314,215.44. The trade was a 15.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 3,620 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.16, for a total value of $731,819.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 274 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $55,391.84. This represents a 92.96% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on DRI. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 13th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $227.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $222.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Eighteen 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, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $226.24.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Darden Restaurants stock opened at $194.09 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $198.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $195.25. The company has a market capitalization of $22.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.54, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.61. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $228.27.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.94 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 8.66% and a return on equity of 53.54%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 10.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 10th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Darden Restaurants's payout ratio is 63.49%.

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.

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