Darden Restaurants, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.40 (NYSE:DRI)

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of 1.40 per share by the restaurant operator on Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.98%.

Darden Restaurants has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.7% per year over the last three years. Darden Restaurants has a dividend payout ratio of 48.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Darden Restaurants to earn $10.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.6%.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.0 %

Darden Restaurants stock opened at $188.11 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.15. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $203.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.55, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.23.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.82 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.60 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 9,264 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.68, for a total transaction of $1,710,875.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $843,433.56. The trade was a 66.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 7,892 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.95, for a total transaction of $1,546,437.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $766,948.30. This trade represents a 66.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,926 shares of company stock valued at $9,850,129 over the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DRI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.33.

About Darden Restaurants

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.