Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Updates FY25 Earnings Guidance

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) updated its FY25 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $9.45-$9.52 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $9.48. The company issued revenue guidance of $12.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $12.09 billion. Darden Restaurants also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 9.450-9.520 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on DRI. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $215.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.33.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

DRI opened at $188.11 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $191.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.15. 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 has a market cap of $22.04 billion, a PE ratio of 21.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. Darden Restaurants has a 1 year low of $135.87 and a 1 year high of $203.12.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.82 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. Darden Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.60 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.15%.

Insider Transactions at Darden Restaurants

In related news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 7,892 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.95, for a total value of $1,546,437.40. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $766,948.30. This trade represents a 66.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Matthew R. Broad sold 12,759 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $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 sold a total of 52,926 shares of company stock valued at $9,850,129 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.