J.Safra Asset Management Corp Purchases Shares of 2,227 Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 2,227 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $459,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in DRI. Meridian Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the 4th quarter valued at $2,404,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in Darden Restaurants by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 23,473 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,319,000 after buying an additional 5,830 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,063,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,587,939,000 after buying an additional 43,965 shares during the period. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Darden Restaurants during the fourth quarter worth $1,007,000. Finally, Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 313.9% during the fourth quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,598 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,502,000 after buying an additional 10,313 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DRI. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Evercore lowered shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $226.00 to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Stephens increased their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $228.88.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $225.31 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $206.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $203.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.70 billion, a PE ratio of 21.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.31 and a quick ratio of 0.21. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $229.76.

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

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Darden Restaurants news, insider Laura B. Williamson sold 443 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.89, for a total transaction of $90,766.27. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,536 shares in the company, valued at $1,134,271.04. This represents a 7.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 8,478 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $1,780,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,799,490. This represents a 49.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 70,185 shares of company stock valued at $14,636,984. Company insiders own 0.67% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Profile

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.