Forensic Analysis · Restaurants · as of Nov 9, 2026

Darden Restaurants Inc (DRI)

A forensic read on Darden Restaurants Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Distress

Financial health

-0.0

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

53.4%

ROE

9.4%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Darden Restaurants Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -0.0, placing it in the Distress zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

13.5%

FY2026

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 13.5% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2024–FY2026, inside a 0.9-point range. After-tax operating profit was $1.2B in FY2024 and $1.4B in FY2026, with operating income at 11.5% of revenue in FY2024, 11.3% in FY2025 and 12.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +13% across FY2024–FY2026, from $9.0B to $10.2B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 12.8% the older base was already earning.

122% of FCF

FY2026

Shareholder returns. Returned $1.4B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 122% of free cash flow, but 74% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $79M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 129%.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$13.21B

Revenue Growth YoY+9.4%

Revenue CAGR (2yr)+7.7%

Net Margin9.1%

Free Cash Flow$1.12B

Return on Equity53.4%

Debt / Equity1.06x

The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Darden Restaurants Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?

Generate the AI investment read →

No credit card · informational only, not investment advice · see the track record

← Browse all forensic stock analyses

Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 9, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

See a wrong number? Report an error with the filing it should match.