Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Updates FY 2025 Earnings Guidance

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) issued an update on its FY 2025 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 9.450-9.520 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 9.480. The company issued revenue guidance of $12.1 billion-$12.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $12.1 billion. Darden Restaurants also updated its FY25 guidance to $9.45-$9.52 EPS.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

Darden Restaurants stock opened at $198.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.23. Darden Restaurants has a 12 month low of $135.87 and a 12 month high of $203.47. The company has a market cap of $23.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $191.67 and its 200-day moving average is $176.31.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The restaurant operator reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.80. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.12% and a net margin of 9.01%. The business had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.15%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on DRI shares. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Darden Restaurants in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $183.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $193.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In other Darden Restaurants news, CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total transaction of $1,313,399.88. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 10,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,864,708.02. The trade was a 41.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Todd Burrowes sold 15,783 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.03, for a total value of $2,888,762.49. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 46,288 shares in the company, valued at $8,472,092.64. The trade was a 25.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 52,926 shares of company stock valued at $9,850,129 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.