Darden Restaurants (DRI) stock fell on Thursday following the release of the company’s Fiscal Q1 2026 earnings report. That report started with adjusted earnings per share of $1.97, which missed Wall Street’s estimate of $2 per share. That’s despite adjusted EPS growth of 12.6% year-over-year from $1.75.
Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
- Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence.
Darden Restaurants reported revenue of $3.04 billion in Fiscal Q1 2026, which matched analysts’ estimate for the period. The company’s revenue increased 10.1% year-over-year compared to $2.76 billion. This came from a 4.7% increase in same-store sales, as Olive Garden reported same-store sales growth of 5.9% and LongHorn Steakhouse same-store sales rose 5.5%.
Darden Restaurants stock was down 6.13% in pre-market trading on Thursday, following a 0.6% drop yesterday. The shares remain up 14.3% year-to-date and 21.2% over the past 12 months.
Darden Restaurants Guidance
Darden Restaurants provided a guidance update for Fiscal 2026 in its latest earnings report. The company expects adjusted EPS to range from $10.50 to $10.70. With a midpoint of $10.60, that doesn’t look good compared to Wall Street’s estimate of $10.69 per share.
Also included in Darden Restaurants’ Fiscal 2026 guidance was:
- Total sales growth of 7.5% to 8.5%.
- Same-restaurant sales growth of 2.5% to 3.5%.
- 65 new restaurant openings.
- Total capital spending of $700 to $750 million.
- Total inflation of 3.0% to 3.5%.
- An effective tax rate of approximately 13%.
Is Darden Restaurants Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Darden Restaurants is Strong Buy, based on 16 Buy and five Hold ratings over the past three months. With that comes an average DRI stock price target of $238.52, representing a potential 14.24% upside for the shares. These ratings and price targets will likely change as analysts update their coverage after today’s earnings report.
