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 year. 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 brokerages have issued 12-month price targets for Darden Restaurants' shares. Their DRI share price forecasts range from $129.00 to $175.00. On average, they anticipate the company's share price to reach $160.62 in the next year. This suggests that the stock has a possible downside of 2.1%.
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Darden Restaurants' stock was trading at $138.33 at the start of the year. Since then, DRI stock has increased by 18.6% and is now trading at $164.05.
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Darden Restaurants saw a increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totaling 6,060,000 shares, an increase of 7.3% from the April 15th total of 5,650,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.7 days. Approximately 5.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.
View Darden Restaurants' Short Interest.

The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, June 22nd 2023.
View our DRI earnings forecast.

Darden Restaurants will be holding an earnings conference call on Thursday, June 22nd at 8:30 AM Eastern. Interested parties can register for or listen to the call using this link.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) released its earnings results on Thursday, March, 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.24 by $0.10. The restaurant operator had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.73 billion. Darden Restaurants had a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 45.62% and a net margin of 9.19%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.93 earnings per share.
Read the conference call transcript.

Darden Restaurants declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.21 per share on Monday, May 1st. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 6th.
Read our dividend analysis for DRI.

ETFs with the largest weight of Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) stock in their portfolio include Timothy Plan Market Neutral ETF (TPMN), WisdomTree U.S. Value Fund (WTV), AdvisorShares Restaurant ETF (EATZ), Invesco DWA Consumer Cyclicals Momentum ETF (PEZ), Invesco Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment ETF (PEJ), Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF (RCD), Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (SPHD) and SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD).

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) pays an annual dividend of $4.84 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 3.05%. 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 63.19%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, DRI will have a dividend payout ratio of 55.63% next year. This indicates that the company will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
Read our dividend analysis for DRI.

Darden Restaurants announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, June 23rd 2022, which allows the company to buyback $1,000,000,000.00 in shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 6.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Darden Restaurants updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Thursday, March, 23rd. The company provided EPS guidance of $7.85-8.00 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $7.88. The company issued revenue guidance of $10.45-10.50 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $10.42 billion.

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 BlackRock Inc. (7.36%), State Street Corp (4.60%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.12%), Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. (2.01%), Victory Capital Management Inc. (1.83%) and Newport Trust Co (1.73%). Insiders that own company stock include Daniel J Kiernan, 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 $164.05.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) has a market capitalization of $19.84 billion and generates $9.63 billion in revenue each year. The restaurant operator earns $952.80 million in net income (profit) each year or $7.66 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.