Jefferies Financial Group Lowers Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) to Underperform

Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) from a hold rating to an underperform rating in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $124.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $154.00.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Thursday, June 20th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Darden Restaurants from $177.00 to $170.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on Darden Restaurants from $186.00 to $182.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Argus reduced their target price on Darden Restaurants from $186.00 to $175.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $171.95.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $142.27 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $16.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.70, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $148.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $157.94. Darden Restaurants has a 52 week low of $133.36 and a 52 week high of $176.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.38.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.82% and a net margin of 9.02%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 9.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.63%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 65.73%.

Darden Restaurants declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 21st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 4,707 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.15, for a total value of $734,998.05. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,179 shares in the company, valued at $2,994,800.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Darden Restaurants

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of DRI. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 19.7% during the fourth quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,789 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $458,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $17,202,000. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC now owns 18,095 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,973,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 39.7% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 30,344 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,986,000 after purchasing an additional 8,619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 968,029 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $159,047,000 after purchasing an additional 65,223 shares during the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.