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

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) updated its FY 2025 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of 9.450-9.520 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Darden Restaurants from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $218.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Darden Restaurants from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.36.

Darden Restaurants Stock Performance

NYSE:DRI opened at $199.92 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $192.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.60. The company has a market cap of $23.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.90, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.37. Darden Restaurants has a fifty-two week low of $135.87 and a fifty-two week high of $203.47.

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

Darden Restaurants Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $1.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Darden Restaurants’s payout ratio is 64.15%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Douglas J. Milanes sold 7,892 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.95, for a total transaction of $1,546,437.40. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,914 shares in the company, valued at $766,948.30. This represents a 66.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Todd Burrowes sold 15,783 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.03, for a total value of $2,888,762.49. Following the sale, the insider now owns 46,288 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,472,092.64. This represents a 25.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 52,926 shares of company stock worth $9,850,129. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.