Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) issued an update on its FY 2022 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $7.000-7.500 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus EPS estimate of $7.210. The company issued revenue guidance of $9.20 billion-9.50 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $9.22 billion.
Shares of Darden Restaurants stock opened at $135.45 on Thursday. Darden Restaurants has a 1 year low of $68.91 and a 1 year high of $149.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $17.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -72.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.54. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $140.01.
Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 24th. The restaurant operator reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.29. Darden Restaurants had a negative net margin of 3.54% and a positive return on equity of 5.94%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.90 EPS. Darden Restaurants’s revenue for the quarter was down 26.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Darden Restaurants will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 9th will be given a dividend of $1.10 per share. This is an increase from Darden Restaurants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.46%.
Darden Restaurants declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 25th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 2.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.
Several research analysts have issued reports on DRI shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Darden Restaurants from $158.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a buy rating on shares of Darden Restaurants in a research note on Friday, March 19th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $131.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, March 19th. Finally, Cowen upgraded shares of Darden Restaurants from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their target price for the stock from $137.00 to $164.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 6th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Darden Restaurants presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $146.10.
In other news, CEO Eugene I. Lee, Jr. sold 40,000 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.88, for a total transaction of $5,715,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 268,707 shares in the company, valued at $38,392,856.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Ricardo Cardenas sold 1,200 shares of Darden Restaurants stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.04, for a total transaction of $176,448.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 48,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,082,769.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 79,269 shares of company stock valued at $11,390,912. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.
About Darden Restaurants
Darden Restaurants, Inc, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. As of May 31, 2020, it owned and operated approximately 1,804 restaurants, which included 868 under the Olive Garden, 522 under the LongHorn Steakhouse, 165 under the Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, 81 under the Yard House, 60 under The Capital Grille, 44 under the Seasons 52, 41 under the Bahama Breeze, and 23 under the Eddie V's Prime Seafood brands.
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