Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Releases FY 2025 Earnings Guidance

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) updated its FY 2025 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of 9.400-9.600 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 9.440. The company issued revenue guidance of $12.1 billion-$12.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $12.1 billion. Darden Restaurants also updated its FY25 guidance to $9.40-$9.60 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DRI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush increased their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI raised shares of Darden Restaurants from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $183.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $165.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $192.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.24.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $183.44 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $166.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $156.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.55 billion, a PE ratio of 21.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.22. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $188.82.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.05%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is 64.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In related news, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 42,403 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.68, for a total transaction of $7,279,747.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 58,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,075,040.80. The trade was a 41.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.30, for a total transaction of $489,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,057,743.30. The trade was a 19.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 59,265 shares of company stock worth $10,116,030 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

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.