State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Decreases Stock Holdings in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its position in shares of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI - Free Report) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 41,674 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 1,415 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D's holdings in Darden Restaurants were worth $7,780,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its position in Darden Restaurants by 96,162.9% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 8,861,000 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,454,356,000 after purchasing an additional 8,851,795 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,707,456 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $772,635,000 after acquiring an additional 26,601 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 3.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,580,322 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $587,638,000 after acquiring an additional 123,900 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Darden Restaurants by 0.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,806,113 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $459,216,000 after acquiring an additional 17,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Darden Restaurants by 111.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,469,083 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $241,121,000 after purchasing an additional 772,907 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.64% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Darden Restaurants news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 7,892 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.95, for a total value of $1,546,437.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 3,914 shares in the company, valued at $766,948.30. The trade was a 66.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 12,759 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.37, for a total value of $2,390,653.83. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 14,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,684,637.36. The trade was a 47.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 52,926 shares of company stock worth $9,850,129 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DRI. Bank of America raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $211.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $193.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $206.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $192.52.

Darden Restaurants Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:DRI traded down $3.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $191.12. 1,385,016 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,118,371. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 1 year low of $135.87 and a 1 year high of $201.94. 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 firm's 50-day simple moving average is $187.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $170.30. The firm has a market cap of $22.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th were given a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 10th. Darden Restaurants's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.