Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.03, RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.46% and a net margin of 9.11%. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.84 EPS. Darden Restaurants updated its FY 2025 guidance to 9.400-9.600 EPS and its FY25 guidance to $9.40-$9.60 EPS.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of DRI stock opened at $187.59 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. Darden Restaurants has a one year low of $135.87 and a one year high of $188.88. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $166.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $156.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.35.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 64.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Darden Restaurants news, Director Nana Mensah sold 1,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.90, for a total value of $201,294.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10 shares in the company, valued at $1,719. This represents a 99.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 42,403 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.68, for a total value of $7,279,747.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 58,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,075,040.80. This represents a 41.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 59,265 shares of company stock worth $10,116,030 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on DRI. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $192.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $195.00 to $211.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $186.60.

About Darden Restaurants

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.