Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey Boosts Holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 3.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,786 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the period. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey’s holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $3,877,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of DRI. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,134,246 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $680,418,000 after purchasing an additional 175,811 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in Darden Restaurants by 1.5% during the second quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 16,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,678,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its position in Darden Restaurants by 37.5% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 79,345 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,295,000 after buying an additional 21,657 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 19.7% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 780,978 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $170,203,000 after acquiring an additional 128,468 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ibex Wealth Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants in the second quarter valued at $778,000. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DRI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $215.00 to $205.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $225.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Darden Restaurants from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $253.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.82.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE DRI opened at $173.83 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $20.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.74. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.40 and a 12 month high of $228.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The company has a 50-day moving average of $188.90 and a 200-day moving average of $202.63.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 18th. The restaurant operator reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.01 by ($0.04). Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 52.35% and a net margin of 8.90%.The company had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.75 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.500-10.700 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 5,661 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.40, for a total value of $1,094,837.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 13,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,691,354.40. This trade represents a 28.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants 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.