New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $29.06 Million Position in Darden Restaurants, Inc. $DRI

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) by 3.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 152,674 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 4,800 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.13% of Darden Restaurants worth $29,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in Darden Restaurants by 98.5% during the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 64,118 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $12,206,000 after buying an additional 31,815 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Darden Restaurants in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,536,000. SteelPeak Wealth LLC bought a new position in Darden Restaurants in the third quarter valued at $2,816,000. Midwest Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Darden Restaurants in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,441,000. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 74.5% in the third quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR now owns 17,195 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,273,000 after purchasing an additional 7,342 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on DRI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Darden Restaurants from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Friday, December 19th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, December 19th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $207.00 target price (down previously from $240.00) on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.78.

Darden Restaurants Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of DRI opened at $199.35 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $191.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $193.84. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.00 and a 12 month high of $228.27. The company has a market capitalization of $22.95 billion, a PE ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 18th. The restaurant operator reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 8.92% and a return on equity of 52.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.03 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.500-10.700 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.89%.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In related news, insider Todd Burrowes sold 7,103 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.12, for a total transaction of $1,471,173.36. Following the transaction, the insider owned 44,252 shares in the company, valued at $9,165,474.24. The trade was a 13.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John W. Wilkerson sold 2,258 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.00, for a total transaction of $480,954.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 17,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,787,992. This represents a 11.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 18,770 shares of company stock worth $3,948,970. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

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.