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Owns and operates full-service restaurant brands including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and others, mostly company-operated.
Owns and operates full-service restaurant brands including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and others, mostly company-operated.
Books the full restaurant sales itself and bears the food, labour and rent costs, rather than collecting franchise fees, and Olive Garden and LongHorn carry the company. It sold Red Lobster in 2014 and has since bought Ruth's Chris in 2023 and Chuy's in 2024.
Moat: narrow (scale, brand, distribution). Scale procurement and supply-chain advantages plus well-known casual-dining brands, in a highly competitive category.
Headquarters: Orlando, Florida, United States · Founded: 1968 · Employees: 209,931
Size Darden Restaurants (DRI) is a United States Consumer Discretionary company (Restaurants) with a market value of $25.6B, the 416th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $226.35 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 15.3%, against +6.6% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 5th highest of 16 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 8.1% over the last twelve months (peer median +9.1%); the operating margin is 12.2% (peer median 11.9%).
Valuation It trades at 19.7× forward earnings against a peer median of 22.3× (7th cheapest of 15).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 8% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +13%, so the hurdle is -5 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 4.9 points above its cost of capital (7.4% WACC).
Credit Darden Restaurants has 5 bonds outstanding ($2.05B), rated BBB by the agencies and trading like BBB+ at a weighted spread of 90 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 6.1% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 11 Dec 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $13.4B | $13.2B | $12.1B | $11.4B | $10.5B |
| Revenue growth | — | +9% | +6% | +9% | — |
| Gross profit | $2.33B | $2.30B | $2.13B | $1.96B | $1.70B |
| EBITDA | $2.20B | $2.20B | $1.97B | $1.80B | $1.56B |
| Net income | $1.18B | $1.21B | $1.05B | $1.03B | $982M |
| Free cash flow | $1.03B | $1.09B | $1.04B | $993M | $958M |
| Capital expenditure | $761M | $760M | $672M | $628M | $594M |
| Total debt | $8.59B | $8.01B | $7.77B | $6.73B | $5.92B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darden Restaurants DRI | $25.6B | +15% | +8% | 12% | 19.7× | 7.5% |
| Bloomin' Brands BLMN | $835M | +23% | -2% | 3% | 10.5× | 10.6% |
| Texas Roadhouse TXRH | $12.1B | +4% | +10% | 8% | 26.8× | 13.8% |
| Cracker Barrel Old Country Store CBRL | $1.45B | +106% | -5% | 0% | 30.3× | 14.0% |
| Brinker International EAT | $8.58B | +49% | +6% | 11% | 14.7× | 9.3% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | DRI | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +12.9% | +9.9% | 4th highest of 16 |
| 6-month return | +15.3% | +6.6% | 5th highest of 16 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -3.3% | -15.0% | 2nd highest of 16 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +8.1% | +9.1% | 8th lowest of 16 |
| Operating margin | 12.2% | 11.9% | 8th highest of 16 |
| Forward P/E | 19.7× | 22.3× | 7th cheapest of 15 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 7.5% | 6.1% | 6th most demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +12.9% | +11.7% | 8th highest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -5.4 pp | -5.9 pp | 7th most demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +4.9 pp | +7.6 pp | 5th lowest of 16 |
| EV / EBITDA | 15.5× | 14.5× | 7th most expensive of 16 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.8× | 2.0× | 5th most indebted of 16 |
| Bond spread | 90 bp | 124 bp | 2nd tightest of 4 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darden Restaurants DRI | United States | $25.6B | +15% | +8% | 12% | 19.7× | 7.5% | +12.9% |
| Restaurant Brands International QSR | United States | $35.1B | -3% | +6% | 27% | 18.1× | 6.3% | +13.7% |
| Restaurant Brands International LP QSP-UN.TO | Canada | $35.9B | +12% | +5% | 28% | n/a | 1.0% | +14.6% |
| Yum China YUMC | United States | $17.1B | +6% | +10% | 13% | 15.3× | -7.5% | +7.4% |
| Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG | United States | $43.6B | +6% | +8% | 15% | 27.1× | 15.1% | +14.8% |
| Yum! Brands YUM | United States | $44.0B | +7% | +9% | 32% | 24.8× | -0.2% | +7.8% |
| Aramark ARMK | United States | $13.9B | +17% | +11% | 4% | 19.8× | 16.1% | +7.6% |
| Zensho 7550.T | Japan | $12.2B | +41% | +12% | 7% | 34.3× | 6.1% | +16.3% |
| Texas Roadhouse TXRH | United States | $12.1B | +4% | +10% | 8% | 26.8× | 13.8% | +19.6% |
| Domino's DPZ | United States | $11.0B | +4% | +4% | 20% | 16.3× | 1.8% | +3.7% |
| Sodexo SW.PA | France | $9.91B | +28% | 0% | 3% | 17.7× | 6.0% | +6.6% |
| Brinker International EAT | United States | $8.58B | +49% | +6% | 11% | 14.7× | 9.3% | +11.7% |
| Food & Life Companies 3563.T | Japan | $7.34B | +12% | +24% | 10% | 35.6× | 6.9% | +16.0% |
| McDonald's Holdings Company (Japan) 2702.T | Japan | $7.33B | +7% | +2% | 14% | 32.0× | 1.8% | +7.6% |
| Haidilao 6862.HK | Hong Kong | $7.24B | -28% | +11% | 12% | 11.4× | 2.0% | +7.8% |
| CAVA CAVA | United States | $6.91B | -26% | +27% | 7% | 85.5× | 41.5% | +27.9% |
Darden Restaurants has 5 bonds outstanding with $2.05B face value. The agencies rate it BBB; its bonds trade like BBB+. Weighted yield 5.70%, a spread of 90 bp over government bonds.