NEW YORK, NY - This sentence may sound familiar: Activist investor Starboard Value is now cutting back its stake in Olive Garden parent company Darden Restaurants, for the third time this year, no less. 

After selling another 1.3 million shares, Starboard now only owns a fraction of its previous stake—5.2%. The Vista Voice estimates the sale to have netted over $25 million.

As previously mentioned, this is not the first time Starboard has reduced its stake this year. From its all-time-high of 1.6 million-shares, the company cut its stake from 9.1% to 8.1% in January, then down to 6.2% just last month. 

Starboard has previously said in a regulatory filing that it intends to remain a large shareholder in Darden, taking advantage of a “significant appreciation” in Darden’s stock. The company’s regulatory filing on the stock sale showed Starboard’s stake currently at 5.2% with about 6.7 million shares.

The “significant appreciation” referred to in the filing is part of the restaurant operator’s turnaround of its poor financial performance in the years prior. After Starboard had overturned Darden’s entire Board of Directors in October of 2014 and placed Starboard CEO Jeffrey Smith as the company’s Chairman, the restaurant operator seemed to completely revamp its poor financial performance in the year prior.

In its most recent quarterly report, Darden beat Wall Street expectations and appointed former Chief Strategy Officer Ricardo Cardenas as its new Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. 

Darden Restaurants Starboard Value