Darden Restaurants - DRI Stock Forecast, Price & News

24 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Darden Restaurants in the last twelve months. There are currently 5 hold ratings and 19 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "buy" DRI shares.
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24 brokers have issued 1-year target prices for Darden Restaurants' stock. Their DRI share price forecasts range from $129.00 to $175.00. On average, they expect the company's stock price to reach $154.76 in the next year. This suggests a possible upside of 2.6% from the stock's current price.
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Darden Restaurants' stock was trading at $138.33 at the beginning of 2023. Since then, DRI shares have increased by 9.0% and is now trading at $150.80.
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Darden Restaurants saw a increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totaling 3,690,000 shares, an increase of 39.8% from the February 13th total of 2,640,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days. Currently, 3.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.
View Darden Restaurants' Short Interest.

The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, March 23rd 2023.
View our DRI earnings forecast.

Darden Restaurants will be holding an earnings conference call on Thursday, March 23rd at 8:30 AM Eastern. Interested parties can register for or listen to the call using this link.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) announced its earnings results on Friday, December, 17th. The restaurant operator reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.05. The restaurant operator earned $2.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.23 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.10% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 42.51%. Darden Restaurants's quarterly revenue was up 37.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share.
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Darden Restaurants announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $1.21 per share on Wednesday, February 1st. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 9th.
Read our dividend analysis for DRI.

ETFs with the largest weight of Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) stock in their portfolio include AdvisorShares Restaurant ETF (EATZ), Invesco Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment ETF (PEJ), Invesco DWA Consumer Cyclicals Momentum ETF (PEZ), Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF (RCD), Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (SPHD), Federated Hermes U.S. Strategic Dividend ETF (FDV), SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD) and First Trust Dorsey Wright Momentum & Dividend ETF (DDIV).

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) pays an annual dividend of $4.84 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 3.26%. The company has been increasing its dividend for 2 consecutive year(s), indicating that it does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio is 66.76%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, DRI will have a dividend payout ratio of 56.02% next year. This indicates that the company will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
Read our dividend analysis for DRI.

Darden Restaurants declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, June 23rd 2022, which authorizes the company to repurchase $1,000,000,000.00 in shares, according to EventVestor. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 6.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

333 employees have rated Darden Restaurants Chief Executive Officer Gene Lee on Glassdoor.com. Gene Lee has an approval rating of 88% among the company's employees.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other Darden Restaurants investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Boeing (BA), Walt Disney (DIS), Home Depot (HD), Intel (INTC), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Micron Technology (MU), PayPal (PYPL), Alibaba Group (BABA) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).

Darden Restaurants trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "DRI."

Darden Restaurants' stock is owned by a variety of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional shareholders include Geode Capital Management LLC (2.06%), Newport Trust Co (1.75%), Morgan Stanley (1.29%), Victory Capital Management Inc. (1.27%), Victory Capital Management Inc. (1.26%) and Amundi (1.22%). Insiders that own company stock include Daniel J Kiernan, David C George, Douglas J Milanes, Douglas J Milanes, Eugene I Lee Jr, Eugene I Lee, Jr, John W Madonna, Juliana L Chugg, M Shan Atkins, Matthew R Broad, Melvin John Martin, Nana Mensah, Ricardo Cardenas, Richard L Renninger, Sarah H King, Susan M Connelly, Timothy J Wilmott, Todd Burrowes and William S Simon.
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Shares of DRI stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include WeBull, Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.
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One share of DRI stock can currently be purchased for approximately $150.80.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) has a market capitalization of $18.35 billion and generates $9.63 billion in revenue each year. The restaurant operator earns $952.80 million in net income (profit) each year or $7.25 on an earnings per share basis.

The company employs 178,956 workers across the globe.

Darden Restaurants' mailing address is 1000 DARDEN CENTER DRIVE, ORLANDO FL, 32837. The official website for the company is www.darden.com. The restaurant operator can be reached via phone at (407) 245-4000, via email at irinfo@darden.com, or via fax at 407-245-4989.