Darden Restaurants (DRI)

• Market cap: $23.2B
• 1 day: -1.65%
• 5 days: -0.13%
• 1 month: -4.85%
• 3 months: 5.78%
• 6 months: 22.07%
• Year to date: 6.40%
• 1 year: 26.72%
• 5 years: 188.36%
• 10 years: 196.15%
• Sector: Consumer Discretionary
• Industry: Restaurants

About: Darden Restaurants is the largest restaurant operator in the US full-service space, with consolidated revenue of $11.4 billion in fiscal 2024 resulting in 3%-4% full-service market share (per NRA data and our calculations). The company maintains a portfolio of 11 restaurant brands: Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Ruth's Chris, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Eddie V's, Bahama Breeze, The Capital Burger, and most recently, Chuy's. Darden generates revenue almost exclusively from company-owned restaurants, though a small network of franchised restaurants and consumer-packaged goods sales through the traditional grocery channel contribute modestly. As of the end of its fiscal 2024, the company operated 2,031 restaurants in the US.

Employees: 187,384

Fund manager confidence

Based on 2024 Q4 regulatory disclosures by fund managers ($100M+ AUM)

200% more funds holding in top 10

Funds holding in top 10: 2 [Q3] → 6 (+4) [Q4]

86% more first-time investments, than exits

New positions opened: 151 | Existing positions closed: 81

14% more capital invested

Capital invested by funds: $18.3B [Q3] → $20.9B (+$2.62B) [Q4]

6% more funds holding

Funds holding: 872 [Q3] → 928 (+56) [Q4]

0.22% more ownership

Funds ownership: 95.01% [Q3] → 95.22% (+0.22%) [Q4]

11% less repeat investments, than reductions

Existing positions increased: 289 | Existing positions reduced: 325

21% less call options, than puts

Call options by funds: $402M | Put options by funds: $509M

Research analyst outlook

17 Wall Street Analysts provided 1 year price targets over the past 3 months

• Low target: $178 10% downside
• Avg. target: $214 8% upside
• High target: $238 20% upside

17 analyst ratings

• positive: 12 71%
• neutral: 5 29%
• negative: 0 0%

Baird David Tarantino 35% 1-year accuracy 11 / 31 met price target	3% downside $192	Neutral Maintained	7 Apr 2025
Guggenheim Greg Francfort 0% 1-year accuracy 0 / 1 met price target	11% upside $220	Buy Maintained	24 Mar 2025
Wells Fargo Zachary Fadem 35% 1-year accuracy 13 / 37 met price target	1% upside $200	Equal-Weight Maintained	21 Mar 2025
Citigroup Jon Tower 38% 1-year accuracy 13 / 34 met price target	15% upside $229	Buy Maintained	21 Mar 2025
Barclays Jeffrey Bernstein 43% 1-year accuracy 50 / 115 met price target	18% upside $235	Overweight Maintained	21 Mar 2025