MGO One Seven LLC Has $6.02 Million Stock Position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Key Points

• MGO One Seven LLC increased its Darden Restaurants stake by 19.7% in the fourth quarter, bringing its position to 32,694 shares valued at about $6.02 million.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on Darden Restaurants, with several firms raising price targets and the stock carrying a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $226.24.
• The company reported solid quarterly results, with EPS of $2.95 and revenue of $3.35 billion, both slightly ahead of estimates, while also paying a $1.50 quarterly dividend yielding about 3.1%.

MGO One Seven LLC grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI - Free Report) by 19.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 32,694 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after acquiring an additional 5,380 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC's holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $6,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 83.0% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,870 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,080,000 after purchasing an additional 2,662 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in Darden Restaurants during the 4th quarter worth $272,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 248,254 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $46,476,000 after buying an additional 13,802 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 70,634 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $12,998,000 after buying an additional 19,391 shares during the period. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC grew its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 63.6% in the 4th quarter. Millstone Evans Group LLC now owns 1,286 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho raised Darden Restaurants from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the company from $195.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. BTIG Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $225.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $226.24.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $196.28 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.39. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.00 and a 52 week high of $228.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $200.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $194.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.48 billion, a PE ratio of 20.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.61.

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

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Darden Restaurants's dividend payout ratio is presently 63.49%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.