Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) Declares $1.40 Quarterly Dividend

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 20th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of 1.40 per share by the restaurant operator on Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th.

Darden Restaurants has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.7% annually over the last three years. Darden Restaurants has a dividend payout ratio of 48.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Darden Restaurants to earn $10.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.6%.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of DRI stock opened at $199.92 on Friday. Darden Restaurants has a one year low of $135.87 and a one year high of $203.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The stock has a market cap of $23.42 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $192.08 and a 200-day moving average of $176.60.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.80. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 50.12%. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In related news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total value of $1,313,399.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 10,262 shares in the company, valued at $1,864,708.02. The trade was a 41.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Todd Burrowes sold 15,783 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.03, for a total value of $2,888,762.49. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 46,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,472,092.64. This trade represents a 25.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,926 shares of company stock worth $9,850,129 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on DRI shares. Truist Financial increased their target price on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Wedbush increased their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.36.

About Darden Restaurants

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.