Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,844 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,616,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of DRI. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,190 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $403,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,144 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its position in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 15,983 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,941,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 44.8% in the 1st quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 181 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glenview Trust co lifted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 1,308 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $285,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 39,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.06, for a total value of $8,181,354.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 86,146 shares in the company, valued at $18,009,682.76. The trade was a 31.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 8,478 shares of the 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 $1,799,490. The trade was a 49.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 70,185 shares of company stock worth $14,636,984. 0.67% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DRI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $272.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Evercore cut shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $230.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $236.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.12.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $218.95 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $209.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $204.71. The company has a market cap of $24.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.60. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.00 and a twelve month high of $229.76.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 25th. The restaurant operator reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.98 earnings per share. The business’s 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. On average, analysts predict that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 11.28 EPS for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. This is a positive change from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.50. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 62.43%.

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.