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Here's How Much You'd Have If You Invested $1000 in Darden Restaurants a Decade Ago

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How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Darden Restaurants (DRI - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to DRI for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Darden Restaurants' Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Darden Restaurants' main business drivers.

Founded in 1968 and based in Orlando, FL, Darden Restaurants is one of the largest casual dining restaurant operators worldwide. The company has operations in the United States and Canada with more than 1,700 restaurants.

The company reports its business under four segments: Olive Garden (46.7% of total revenues for fiscal 2022), LongHorn Steakhouse (24.7%), Fine Dining (8.1%) and Other Business (20.5%).

Florida-based Olive Garden is the largest full-service Italian restaurant in America. The brand features a menu, which has a variety of Italian food made with fresh ingredients.

LongHorn Steakhouse is a full-service steakhouse restaurant, with locations primarily in the eastern United States. The brand offers signature fresh steaks and chicken as well as salmon, shrimp, ribs, pork chops, burgers and prime rib.

Fine Dining, includes The Capital Grille and Eddie V’s while the Other Business segment comprises of Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, consumer packaged goods and franchise revenues. Notably, all the company owned restaurants fall under full-service segment of the restaurant industry.

On Apr 24, 2017, the company completed the acquisition of the Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen for $799.8 million in total consideration. The acquired operations of Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen included 140 company-owned restaurants and 25 franchised restaurants. On Aug 28, 2017, Darden completed the acquisition of 11 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen franchised restaurants from an already existing franchisee.

Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen is a full-service restaurant operating in Texas and throughout the southern, mid-western and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The casual dining menu features modern classics and American favorites cooked from scratch.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Darden Restaurants ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in January 2013 would be worth $3,153.47, or a 215.35% gain, as of January 31, 2023. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 167.50% and gold's return of 10.89% over the same time frame.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for DRI.

Shares of Darden have outperformed the industry in the past six months. The company reported second-quarter fiscal 2023 results, with earnings and revenues beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The metrics increased on a year-over-year basis. The company is gaining from business-model enhancements and menu simplifications. This and a focus on technological enhancements in online ordering, the introduction of To Go capacity management and Curbside I'm Here notification bode well. Earnings estimates for fiscal 2023 have increased in the past 30 days, depicting analysts’ optimism regarding the growth potential of the stock. However, COVID-19-related woes persist. Although the company has reopened most of its restaurants, traffic is still below pre-pandemic levels. This and a rise in commodity and labor costs are concerns.

The stock is up 6.21% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 13 higher, for fiscal 2023. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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