Darden Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. As of May 30, 2021, it owned and operated 1,834 restaurants, which included 875 under the Olive Garden, 533 under the LongHorn Steakhouse, 170 under the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, 81 under the Yard House, 63 under The Capital Grille, 44 under the Seasons 52, 42 under the Bahama Breeze, and 26 under the Eddie V's Prime Seafood brands. The company was founded in 1968 and is based in Orlando, Florida.
Darden Restaurants Trading Down 1.7 %
Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $123.58 on Monday. Darden Restaurants has a 52-week low of $110.96 and a 52-week high of $164.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $119.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.06. The firm has a market cap of $15.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.31.
Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI - Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $2.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.03. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 39.05%. The company had revenue of $2.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.54 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 8th were given a dividend of $1.21 per share. This is a positive change from Darden Restaurants's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 7th. Darden Restaurants's dividend payout ratio is presently 65.41%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $153.00 to $150.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 24th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 22nd. Wedbush decreased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $140.00 to $122.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 24th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $153.00 to $136.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $141.65.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Darden Restaurants news, Director Nana Mensah sold 567 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.03, for a total value of $66,356.01. Following the sale, the director now owns 10 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,170.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Darden Restaurants news, Chairman Eugene I. Lee, Jr. sold 41,442 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.71, for a total value of $5,168,231.82. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 222,480 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,745,480.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Nana Mensah sold 567 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.03, for a total transaction of $66,356.01. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,170.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.95% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.