Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Earns “Equal Weight” Rating from Stephens

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reiterated by Stephens in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $205.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock. Stephens’ target price points to a potential upside of 1.31% from the company’s previous close.

DRI has been the topic of several other reports. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $234.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Friday, December 19th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.33.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of DRI stock opened at $202.36 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.30 billion, a PE ratio of 21.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.61. Darden Restaurants has a 1-year low of $169.00 and a 1-year high of $228.27. The business has a 50-day moving average of $207.68 and a 200 day moving average of $194.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.26.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 18th. The restaurant operator reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by ($0.02). Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 52.44% and a net margin of 8.92%.The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.03 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Darden Restaurants has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.500-10.700 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

In other news, SVP Susan M. Connelly sold 2,635 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.36, for a total transaction of $546,393.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 4,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $849,761.28. The trade was a 39.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Todd Burrowes sold 7,103 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.12, for a total transaction of $1,471,173.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 44,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,165,474.24. The trade was a 13.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,770 shares of company stock valued at $3,948,970. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Darden Restaurants by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,161,277 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,790,128,000 after purchasing an additional 322,079 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Darden Restaurants by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,063,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,587,939,000 after buying an additional 43,965 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Darden Restaurants by 81.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,077,567 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,486,434,000 after buying an additional 3,613,781 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,916,944 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,071,746,000 after buying an additional 100,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,189,868 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $771,020,000 after buying an additional 68,245 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.64% of the company’s stock.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

Darden Restaurants, Inc is a multi-brand, full-service restaurant company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company owns and operates a portfolio of casual and fine-dining concepts that together serve millions of guests through company-owned and franchised locations. Its well-known brands include Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, alongside other dining concepts that span Italian, American, steakhouse and upscale casual formats.

Darden’s restaurants provide a range of guest-facing services including dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering, and feature menus tailored to each brand’s positioning—Italian-American fare at Olive Garden, steaks and grilled items at LongHorn, and more premium steakhouse and chef-driven offerings at its upscale concepts.