Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Releases Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.08 EPS

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) released its earnings results on Thursday. The restaurant operator reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by ($0.08), Briefing.com reports. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 49.82%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Darden Restaurants updated its FY 2025 guidance to 9.400-9.600 EPS and its FY25 guidance to $9.40-9.60 EPS.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

DRI opened at $172.27 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $20.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.22, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $149.69 and a 200 day moving average of $153.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.38. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $133.36 and a fifty-two week high of $176.84.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on DRI. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $159.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $176.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $190.00 to $180.00 in a report on Friday. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants in a report on Friday, June 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darden Restaurants has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.87.

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.