Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) released its earnings results on Friday. The restaurant operator reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01, RTT News reports. The business had revenue of $3.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Darden Restaurants had a return on equity of 50.68% and a net margin of 8.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.65 earnings per share. Darden Restaurants updated its FY 2026 guidance to 10.500-10.700 EPS.

Darden Restaurants Price Performance

Darden Restaurants stock opened at $226.09 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $208.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $196.13. The company has a market capitalization of $26.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.75. Darden Restaurants has a 1 year low of $135.87 and a 1 year high of $228.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.39.

Darden Restaurants Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. This is an increase from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 63.13%.

Darden Restaurants announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Friday, June 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 3.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Darden Restaurants

In related news, insider Laura B. Williamson sold 2,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.26, for a total transaction of $474,418.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,056 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,084,206.56. This represents a 18.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ricardo Cardenas sold 20,518 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $4,271,642.42. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 58,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,249,066.84. This trade represents a 25.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,613 shares of company stock valued at $5,121,492 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DRI. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $192.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $230.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Darden Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $213.35.

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.