Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Issues FY25 Earnings Guidance

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) updated its FY25 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of $9.40-9.60 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $9.48. Darden Restaurants also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 9.400-9.600 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DRI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Darden Restaurants from a hold rating to an underperform rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $154.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $188.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Stephens increased their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $159.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $179.28.

Darden Restaurants Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of DRI opened at $170.17 on Friday. Darden Restaurants has a 1 year low of $133.36 and a 1 year high of $176.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.24. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $150.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $153.52. The firm has a market cap of $20.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.30.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 19th. The restaurant operator reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.83 by ($0.08). Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 49.82% and a net margin of 9.02%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.40 dividend. This is a boost from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 65.73%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Sarah H. King sold 15,941 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.06, for a total transaction of $2,344,283.46. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $65,735.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP Sarah H. King sold 15,941 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.06, for a total value of $2,344,283.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,735.82. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Melvin John Martin sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.09, for a total value of $352,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,691 shares in the company, valued at $1,649,483.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.85% 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.