Darden Restaurants hikes dividend by 23.3%

Darden Restaurants (DRI) will raise its dividend by 23.3 percent to 37 cents per share. In the previous quarter the company reinstated its quarterly dividend with a new payment of $0.30 per share in the fourth quarter of 2020. Earlier this year the full-service restaurant company suspended its dividend after a 17.3 percent in 2019. 

The next dividend is payable on February 1, 2021 to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 8, 2021. The new annual dividend rate yields 1.3% at a stock price of $116 for Darden.

Darden announced a double digit dividend hike every year from 2016 to 2019. With a current market cap of $15.1 billion the company is one of the bigger listed restaurant stocks. Year-to-date the stock price is up 6.6 percent, reversing a big drop earlier this year because of COVID-19.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. is a full-service restaurant company with operations in the United States and Canada. Its brands include Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and Eddie V's.  Darden Restaurants is a Florida corporation incorporated in March 1995. The company initiated a dividend in 1995 and temporarily suspended its payment in 2020 because of COVID-19. In the fourth quarter of 2020 the dividend was reinstated.