Emerald Investment Advisers LLC Makes New $6.42 Million Investment in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Emerald Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 31,182 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $6,424,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 3.3% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 80,001 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,438,000 after purchasing an additional 2,553 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Darden Restaurants in the second quarter worth about $200,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 3.2% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 2,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $529,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 15.7% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,151,000 after buying an additional 2,581 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 18,183 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,964,000 after buying an additional 1,012 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of DRI stock opened at $221.81 on Friday. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $229.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a current ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.37, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $208.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $204.45.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.73 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 57.44%. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.98 EPS. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2027 guidance at 11.100-11.350 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 10th. This is a positive change from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.43%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on DRI shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Darden Restaurants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $208.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $228.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, insider John W. Wilkerson sold 8,864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $1,846,637.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 18,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,915,354.02. This trade represents a 32.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Laura B. Williamson sold 1,110 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.32, for a total transaction of $226,795.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 10,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,197,257.28. The trade was a 9.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 70,185 shares of company stock valued at $14,636,984. Corporate insiders own 0.67% of the company’s stock.

About Darden Restaurants

Darden Restaurants, Inc is a multi-brand, full-service restaurant company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company owns and operates a portfolio of casual and fine-dining concepts that together serve millions of guests through company-owned and franchised locations. Its well-known brands include Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, alongside other dining concepts that span Italian, American, steakhouse and upscale casual formats.

Darden’s restaurants provide a range of guest-facing services including dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering, and feature menus tailored to each brand’s positioning—Italian-American fare at Olive Garden, steaks and grilled items at LongHorn, and more premium steakhouse and chef-driven offerings at its upscale concepts.