Jefferies Cuts Price Target & Estimates on Darden Restaurants (DRI) Following Weak Q1 Results
Tweet
Share
E-mailGet Alerts DRI Hot Sheet
Price: $221.60 +1.67%
Rating Summary:
27 Buy, 18 Hold, 1 Sell
Rating Trend:
Up
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 8 | Down: 5 | New: 26
Rating Summary:
27 Buy, 18 Hold, 1 Sell
Rating Trend:
Up
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 8 | Down: 5 | New: 26
Join SI Premium – FREE
Jefferies is reiterating its Buy rating on shares of Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI), but is lowering its price target from $58 to $53.
The company per-announced its first quarter results below the firm and Street's expectations due to poor same-store-sales at Olive Garden. Hurricane Irene, which negatively impacted earnings by $0.02, helped contribute to only $0.78 per share in earnings for the quarter when the firm was forecasting $0.86 and the Street was at $0.87.
Although Olive Garden's same-store-sales fell below expectations, Red Lobsters came in well above at 10.7 percent.
An analyst at Jefferies comments, "recent weakness at OG comes as a surprise, and suggests that the turnaround at its core Italian brand may take longer than expected. We remain optimistic given Darden's impressive momentum at its key development vehicles and strong acceleration in underlying trends at DRI's most challenged & economically-sensitive brand."
The firm cut its 2012 and 2013 EPS estimates from $3.88 and $4.33 to $3.77 and $4.22. Jefferies also reduced its revenue estimates from $8.017 billion and $8.561 billion to $7.972 billion and $8.511 billion.
For more ratings news on Darden Restaurants click here and for the rating history of Darden Restaurants click here.
Shares of Darden Restaurants closed at $46.18 yesterday.
The company per-announced its first quarter results below the firm and Street's expectations due to poor same-store-sales at Olive Garden. Hurricane Irene, which negatively impacted earnings by $0.02, helped contribute to only $0.78 per share in earnings for the quarter when the firm was forecasting $0.86 and the Street was at $0.87.
Although Olive Garden's same-store-sales fell below expectations, Red Lobsters came in well above at 10.7 percent.
An analyst at Jefferies comments, "recent weakness at OG comes as a surprise, and suggests that the turnaround at its core Italian brand may take longer than expected. We remain optimistic given Darden's impressive momentum at its key development vehicles and strong acceleration in underlying trends at DRI's most challenged & economically-sensitive brand."
The firm cut its 2012 and 2013 EPS estimates from $3.88 and $4.33 to $3.77 and $4.22. Jefferies also reduced its revenue estimates from $8.017 billion and $8.561 billion to $7.972 billion and $8.511 billion.
For more ratings news on Darden Restaurants click here and for the rating history of Darden Restaurants click here.
Shares of Darden Restaurants closed at $46.18 yesterday.
Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!
You May Also Be Interested In
- Walmart (WMT) PT Lowered to $130 at UBS on Investment Narrative's Competing Dynamics
- Investing.com’s stocks of the week
- Zurn Water Solutions (ZWS) Reiterated at Buy by Stifel on New Product Development Momentum
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Analyst CommentsRelated Entities
Jefferies & Co, EarningsSign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!
