Darden Restaurants-What's In Store For Darden This Earnings Season? Analyst Predicts Slight Miss In Same-store Sales

Group 1 - Oppenheimer analyst Brian Bittner reiterated an Outperform rating on Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) with a price forecast of $218 [1] - Darden is set to release its fiscal 2025 third quarter financial results on March 20, with shares showing a year-to-date increase of 0.7% despite concerns over discretionary consumer spending [1][3] - Bittner raised the stock to a "top pick" in January, based on expectations of a positive earnings cycle in fiscal 2026 starting in late May [2] Group 2 - The analyst remains confident in catalysts for growth, including new sales drivers like OG delivery, and believes that Street margin forecasts are overly conservative [3] - Darden's third-quarter faced industry-wide challenges such as calendar shifts, adverse weather, a tough flu season, and consumer weakness [4] - The analyst forecasts same-store sales growth at 1.2%, below the Street's estimate of 1.7%, with specific segment expectations of 1.0% growth for OG and 4.5% for LH [4] Group 3 - Due to updated same-store sales projections, the earnings per share estimate is slightly below consensus at$ 2.78 compared to the consensus estimate of $2.79 [5] - DRI shares were trading lower by 0.45% at$ 187.21 as of the latest check [5]