Darden Restaurants - DRI Stock Forecast, Price & News

24 Wall Street 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 analysts is that investors should "buy" DRI shares.
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24 Wall Street research analysts 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 $160.23 in the next twelve months. This suggests a possible upside of 3.7% from the stock's current price.
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Darden Restaurants' stock was trading at $138.33 at the beginning of the year. Since then, DRI stock has increased by 11.7% and is now trading at $154.47.
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Darden Restaurants saw a increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totaling 4,460,000 shares, an increase of 20.9% from the February 28th total of 3,690,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.
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The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, June 22nd 2023.
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Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) posted its earnings results on Thursday, March, 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.24 by $0.10. The restaurant operator earned $2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.73 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.19% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 45.62%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.93 EPS.
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Darden Restaurants announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 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), SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD), Federated Hermes U.S. Strategic Dividend ETF (FDV) and First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDEX Fund (FXD).

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) pays an annual dividend of $4.84 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 3.17%. 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 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, June 23rd 2022, which authorizes the company to buyback $1,000,000,000.00 in outstanding shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 6.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are 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 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 number of retail and institutional investors. Top institutional investors 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 $154.47.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) has a market capitalization of $18.80 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.