# Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) — Stock CV

Darden Restaurants, Inc. is a $22.4B consumer company. Revenue grew 8.1% over the last year, and it keeps 9¢ of every dollar of sales as profit. It trades at 18.9× earnings — in the cheapest third of its own history.

> Darden Restaurants is the largest global full-service dining operator, with over $12 billion in system sales across 2,159 company-owned stores at the end of fiscal 2025, spanning the US and Canada.

## Identity

- **Ticker**: DRI
- **Sector**: Consumer Cyclical
- **Industry**: Retail-Eating Places
- **Headquarters**: ORLANDO, FL
- **Employees**: 209 931
- **Website**: https://www.darden.com
- **Market cap**: $22.4B
- **Last price**: $197.66
- **Financial profile**: Strained

## Vitals (TTM)

- **Revenue**: $13.4B
- **Net income**: $1.18B
- **Free cash flow**: $1.05B
- **P/E**: 18.9
- **Revenue growth (YoY)**: 8.1%

## Skills (profile scores, 0–100)

| Pillar | Score |
|---|---|
| Valuation | 77 |
| Growth | 49 |
| Profitability | 50 |
| Health | 18 |
| Quality | 94 |
| Moat | 75 |

## Qualifications (beginner checklist) — 9 of 11 passed

- [x] Revenue growing — +8.1% YoY
- [x] Profitable — $1.18B TTM
- [x] Profit growing — +9.1% YoY
- [x] Generates cash — $1.05B TTM
- [ ] Debt under control — current ratio 0.30
- [x] Established company — $22.4B market cap
- [x] Not printing shares — -11.8% shares over ~5y
- [x] Proven track record — 10/11 profitable years
- [ ] Financially stable — health score 18/100
- [x] Pays a dividend — yield 3.14%
- [x] Valuation not extreme — P/E 18.9

## Experience (career milestones)

- **FY2026** — Best year on record: $1.21B net income
- **2024** — Darden agreed to acquire Chuy's
- **FY2023** — Revenue crossed $10B: $10.5B for the year
- **FY2021** — Became debt-free: cash now exceeds total debt
- **Mar 28, 2017** — When Darden announced that it had acquired Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen and "lifted its full-year…
- **FY2016** — First recorded profitable year: $375M net income
- **FY2016** — Revenue already above $1B: $6.93B in first reported year
- **FY2016** — Positive free cash flow every year since: 11-year streak
- **May 12, 2014** — Darden announced that as part of the spinoff of Red Lobster, it was converting the co-located Red…
- **1996** — Darden launched a test of a Bahama Breeze Caribbean Grille concept featuring food and drinks found in…
- **May 9, 1995** — Darden Restaurants was spun off from General Mills beginning on May 9, 1995
- **1990** — China Coast was launched as an attempt to create a (U.S.) national casual dining restaurant that featured…
- **1989** — The chain became successful, and by 1989 General Mills had opened over 145 restaurants, making the chain the…
- **1982** — Darden opened the first Olive Garden concept restaurant in Orlando
- **1970** — The restaurant became successful and, by 1970, had expanded to three locations in the state
- **1938** — William "Bill" Darden opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog, in Waycross, Georgia, in 1938 at age 19

## Strengths

- Interest covered 8.2× by operating earnings
- Piotroski F-Score 7/9 — fundamentally strong checklist

## Watch-outs

- Loss-making in 1 of the recent years

## Track record

| Year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2022 | $9.63B | $953M | $888M |
| FY2023 | $10.5B | $982M | $988M |
| FY2024 | $11.4B | $1.03B | $1.02B |
| FY2025 | $12.1B | $1.05B | $1.06B |
| FY2026 | $13.2B | $1.21B | $1.12B |

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Source: https://stockcv.com/DRI — derived from company filings; may be delayed or incomplete. Information, not investment advice.