Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Updates FY25 Earnings Guidance

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) issued an update on its FY25 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $9.40-$9.60 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $9.42. The company issued revenue guidance of $12.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $11.97 billion. Darden Restaurants also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 9.400-9.600 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on DRI. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $188.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $180.46.

Darden Restaurants Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of NYSE DRI opened at $159.87 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $18.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. Darden Restaurants has a 52 week low of $135.87 and a 52 week high of $177.67. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.81.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03. The company had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 49.46%. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.50%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is currently 64.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Nana Mensah sold 1,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.90, for a total value of $201,294.90. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,719. This represents a 99.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 3,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.43, for a total transaction of $542,587.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,005,911.65. This trade represents a 35.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 59,265 shares of company stock worth $10,116,030. 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.