How to Buy Darden Restaurants Stock
Darden Restaurants Inc
Darden Restaurants is a restaurant company located in Florida, United States, which is part of the Consumer Cyclical sector, and is traded under the ticker DRI on the NYSE exchange.
Darden Restaurants stock last closed at $177.57, down 1.43% from the previous day, and has increased 11.84% in one year. It has overperformed other stocks in the Restaurants industry by 0.4 percentage points. Darden Restaurants stock is currently +12.43% from its 52-week low of $157.94, and -22.21% from its 52-week high of $228.27.
There are currently 116.31M DRI shares outstanding. The market cap of DRI is $20.65B. In the past 24 hours, 1.97M DRI shares were traded.
How to Buy Darden Restaurants Stock
Wondering how to invest in Darden Restaurants stock? Here's how.
- Choose where to buy Darden Restaurants stock: You need to choose a stock brokerage, but don't worry - we've researched dozens of online stock brokerages and apps to help you decide where to buy Darden Restaurants stock.
- Open a brokerage account: Sign up for 0% fee trading with the highest-rated brokerage we've selected.
- Deposit funds into your brokerage account: Select your method of payment and add your information.
- Analyze Darden Restaurants stock: The Darden Restaurants ticker symbol is DRI. Is Darden Restaurants stock a good investment? Should you buy shares of DRI? How do DRI's underlying business fundamentals look? Do top analysts think Darden Restaurants is a good buy? Why has DRI's stock price moved recently? (Hint: Our stock research website can help you understand if DRI is a good stock to buy).
- Place your DRI purchase: Decide if you will purchase DRI shares at the current market price or use a limit order to buy DRI shares at a particular price.
- Get the latest scoop on your investment in DRI: Create a watchlist to get the latest news on your position in Darden Restaurants stock.
Step 1: Choose where to buy Darden Restaurants stock
You will need an online brokerage account to access the NYSE market and buy DRI stock.
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Open eToro AccountStep 2: Open a brokerage account
Now that you've picked the best brokerage, it's time to fill out some personal information so you are able to invest in DRI stock today.
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Step 3: Deposit funds into your brokerage account
Now that you have filled out your info on the highest rated stock app, you need to deposit funds:
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Step 4: Analyze Darden Restaurants stock
After you have decided on the best place to buy Darden Restaurants stock, it's crucial to evaluate their stock before you invest, so you can wrap your head around the risk and opportunity.
Darden Restaurants quick stats
DRI Overview
WallStreetZen was built to help average investors do more accurate fundamental analysis.
You can see all of the due diligence checks on DRI's stock page.
Is DRI stock undervalued?
Investors use a variety of different financial metrics, analyses, models, and charts to gauge DRI's true value.
Using relative valuations measures:
- DRI could be undervalued based on its P/E ratio of 18.91x, relative to Restaurants industry P/E ratio of 28.94x
- DRI could be undervalued based on its P/B ratio of 9.28x, relative to Restaurants industry P/B ratio of 65.46x
- DRI may be overvalued based on its PEG ratio of 1.88x
You can do more valuation analysis on DRI's stock here.
A quick look at DRI Financials
Positive Health Checks:
- DRI's operating cash flow of $1.77B allows it to safely service it's debt of $6.16B.
- DRI earnings of $1.43B is not enough to cover its interest payments.
Negative Health Checks:
- There are more long-term liabilities than short-term assets on the DRI balance sheet.
- There are more short-term liabilities than short-term assets on the DRI balance sheet.
- Total DRI debt is higher than 5 years ago, relative to shareholder equity.
- DRI has a relatively high debt to equity ratio of 4.73.
- DRI profit margin has gone down from 9.1% to 8.9% in the past year.
Is it a good time to buy Darden Restaurants stock, according to analysts?
Out of 24 sell side analysts who give forecasts on DRI, the consensus analyst rating on Darden Restaurants is a Strong Buy
Please keep in mind that analyst ratings are not recommendations, nor are they financial advice.
Most Recent DRI Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades
Brian Vaccaro, a top 3% analyst from Raymond James maintains DRI with a buy rating and lowers their DRI price target from $230.00 to $210.00, on Sep 19, 2025.
Brian Harbour, a top 28% analyst from Morgan Stanley maintains DRI with a strong buy rating and raises their DRI price target from $235.00 to $238.00, on Sep 19, 2025.
Morgan Stanley's Brian Harbour raised their price target on Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) by 1.3% from $235 to $238 on 2025/09/19. The analyst maintained their Strong Buy rating on the stock.
Darden Restaurants reported its Q1 2026 earnings.
According to Harbour, the quarter's small same-store revenue shortfall suggests Darden Restaurants may have reached a peak.
That said, the analyst argued that the Street's post-earnings response failed to account for the company's underlying fundamentals.
Earnings Report
For Q1 2026, Darden Restaurants reported:
- EPS of $1.97, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2 but beat, by 12.6%, Q1 2025’s $1.75.
- Revenue of $3.04B, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.17% and, by 10.4%, Q1 2025’s $2.76.
For FY 2026, management guided:
- EPS of $10.50 to $10.70.
- Revenue growth of 7.5% to 8.5%.
President & CEO Rick Cardenas commented: "We had a strong start to the FY with same-restaurant sales and earnings growth that exceeded our expectations.
"The strength of our results is a testament to the power of our strategy.
"Across our portfolio, our restaurant teams remained focused on being brilliant with the basics, and at the Darden level, we continued to leverage our four competitive advantages to position our brands for long-term success.
“Our winning strategy is enabling us to grow sales and market share, while making meaningful investments in our business and returning capital to our shareholders."
Sara Senatore, a bottom 5% analyst from Bank of America maintains DRI with a strong buy rating and raises their DRI price target from $254.00 to $259.00, on Sep 19, 2025.
David Tarantino, a top 15% analyst from Baird maintains DRI with a hold rating and lowers their DRI price target from $230.00 to $208.00, on Sep 19, 2025.
David Palmer, a top 45% analyst from Evercore ISI Group maintains DRI with a buy rating and lowers their DRI price target from $245.00 to $240.00, on Sep 19, 2025.
You can dig deeper into what analysts are forecasting on the Darden Restaurants stock forecast page.
DRI Trading Indicators
How are DRI Revenues/Earnings doing?
Last year, DRI earnings were $1.10B. Over the last 4 year, DRI's earnings have grown by 10.36% per year. This was slower than the Restaurants industry average of 24.31%.
Last year, DRI revenue was $12.36B. Over the last 5 year, DRI's revenue has grown by 11.42% per year. This was faster than the Restaurants industry average of 10.79%.
You can analyze DRI's earnings and revenue performance here.
What are DRI executives and large shareholders up to?
Over the past year, executives and large shareholders at DRI have sold more shares than they have bought.
Melvin John Martin, Group President of DRI, was the latest DRI insider to sell. They sold $313,786.00 worth of DRI stock on Oct 14, 2025.
Learn more about who owns DRI stock here.
Does DRI stock generate passive income?
Darden Restaurants pays a dividend of 1.69%, compared to the Restaurants industry's average dividend yield of 3.08%. If you owned $1,000 worth of DRI stock, you would have been paid $16.89 last year.
Darden Restaurants dividend payments have consistently grown over the past decade but have not remained stable.
Dig into more analysis about Darden Restaurants dividend yield and history here.
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Step 5: Place your DRI purchase
You have two main order types:
- Market order: A market order is an order to buy or sell a stock at the best possible price.
Market orders are generally the easiest way to buy. - Limit order: A limit order lets you buy or sell a stock at a specific price (or better).
If you want to be certain you're buying or selling at a specific price, use a limit order.
Press the Open Trade button and your broker will execute your order.
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Step 6: Get the latest scoop on your investment in DRI
Now that you own some shares in DRI, you'll want to stay up-to-date on your new shares.
Make a watchlist to see the latest developments about your DRI stock.
DRI Feed
How to Buy Stock in Darden Restaurants
To summarize, here are the 6 steps for buying Darden Restaurants stock:
- Choose where to buy Darden Restaurants stock
- Open a brokerage account
- Deposit funds into your brokerage account
- Analyze Darden Restaurants stock
- Place your DRI purchase
- Get the latest scoop on your investment in DRI
If you require a place to buy stocks, eToro is our favorite option.
Get Started with eToro TodayIf you would like to keep track of your investment in Darden Restaurants, add DRI to your watchlist below.
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