Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC Takes $119,000 Position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 638 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $119,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. MCF Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 50.9% during the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 175 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $451,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 13,371 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,497,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Lion Street Advisors LLC boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Lion Street Advisors LLC now owns 20,142 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,760,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobi Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 9,624 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,797,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In other news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 7,892 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $766,948.30. This represents a 66.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Todd Burrowes sold 15,783 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.03, for a total value of $2,888,762.49. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 46,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,472,092.64. This represents a 25.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,926 shares of company stock worth $9,850,129. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on DRI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $183.00 target price on the stock. Wedbush upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Darden Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $180.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $193.00.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of DRI opened at $187.63 on Tuesday. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 52-week low of $135.87 and a 52-week high of $203.12. The company has a market capitalization of $21.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $191.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.84 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th were issued a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.15%.

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.