Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Issues 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 9.500. The company issued revenue guidance of $11.8 billion-$11.9 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $11.8 billion. Darden Restaurants also updated its FY25 guidance to $9.40-9.60 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $163.00 to $159.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $187.00 to $180.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Darden Restaurants from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and cut their target price for the company from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wedbush increased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $173.87.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $172.27 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.22, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.24. Darden Restaurants has a 1 year low of $133.36 and a 1 year high of $176.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $149.69 and its 200 day moving average is $153.39.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last announced 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). The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.80 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 49.82%. Darden Restaurants’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 9.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Darden Restaurants

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

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.