What to Expect From Darden Earnings

By Chris Lange Updated Mar 23, 12:58PM EDT · Published Oct 3, 12:35PM EDT

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What to Expect From Darden Earnings — © Thinkstock

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings results before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.82 in earnings per share (EPS) on revenue of $1.72 billion. The same period from last year reportedly had EPS of $0.68 and $1.69 billion in revenue.

This is one of the largest casual dining restaurant operators worldwide, with operations in the United States and Canada and over 1,500 restaurants as of May 2016. Darden operates restaurants under the Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House brand names.

Management returns much of its free cash to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. With consumers having extra cash to spend as gasoline prices continue to stay low, the stock makes good sense for investors.

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Ahead of the earnings report, a few analysts weighed in on Darden:

Stifel has a Sell rating with a $50 price target.
RBC Capital Markets reiterated a Sector Perform rating with a $70 price target.
Wells Fargo reiterated a Market Perform rating with a $68 price target.
Morgan Stanley reiterated a Hold rating with a $67 price target.
Robert Baird reiterated a Neutral rating.
Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $70 price target.
BMO Capital Market reiterated a Hold rating with a $64 price target.

So far in 2016, Darden has underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down about 2%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock was down 8%.

Shares of Darden were trading down 1.4% at $60.48 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $69.22 and a 52-week trading range of $53.38 to $68.97.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.