Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 10th

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of 1.50 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, May 1st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 10th.

Darden Restaurants has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.2%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 4 years. Darden Restaurants has a payout ratio of 52.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Darden Restaurants to earn $10.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.4%.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of DRI traded down $0.59 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $203.83. 1,188,312 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,502,560. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.47 billion, a PE ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $208.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.68. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $169.00 and a fifty-two week high of $228.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.01. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 8.92% and a return on equity of 52.44%. The firm had revenue of $3.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.80 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DRI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Mizuho raised Darden Restaurants from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $200.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Darden Restaurants from $225.00 to $226.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $226.04.

Darden Restaurants Company 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.