Darden Restaurants - DRI Stock Forecast, Price & News

Darden Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. As of May 29, 2022, it owned and operated 1,867 restaurants, which included 884 under the Olive Garden brand, 546 under the LongHorn Steakhouse brand name, 172 under the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen brand, 85 under the Yard House brand name, 62 under The Capital Grille brand, 45 under the Seasons 52 brand name, 42 under the Bahama Breeze brand, 28 under the Eddie V's Prime Seafood brand name, and 3 under the Capital Burger brand; and franchised 60 restaurants comprising 35 under the Olive Garden brand, 18 under the LongHorn Steakhouse brand name, 4 under the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen brand, 2 under The Capital Grille brand name, and 1 under the Bahama Breeze brand.Darden Restaurants, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is based in Orlando, Florida.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on DRI. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $172.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Friday, June 17th. TheStreet raised shares of Darden Restaurants from a "c+" rating to a "b-" rating in a research report on Monday, May 9th. Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $140.00 to $122.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 24th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $136.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 24th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Darden Restaurants from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $141.65.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

DRI Stock traded up $2.14 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $134.35. The company had a trading volume of 1,064,173 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,266,235. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $120.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $127.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.65 billion, a PE ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.31. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $110.96 and a fifty-two week high of $164.28.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI - Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $2.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.21 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.54 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 39.05% and a net margin of 9.89%. Analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 8th were paid a $1.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 7th. This represents a $4.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.60%. This is a positive change from Darden Restaurants's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Darden Restaurants's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.41%.

Insider Activity

In other Darden Restaurants news, Director Timothy J. Wilmott acquired 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $120.00 per share, with a total value of $1,200,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 27,094 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,251,280. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Timothy J. Wilmott acquired 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 28th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $120.00 per share, for a total transaction of $1,200,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 27,094 shares in the company, valued at $3,251,280. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Eugene I. Lee, Jr. sold 41,442 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.71, for a total transaction of $5,168,231.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 222,480 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,745,480.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company's stock.