Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Aug 10, 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.

B · Sound & dependable

Forensic grade

Grey Zone

Financial health

2.2

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

20.2

P / E (ttm)

54.7%

ROE

$24.6B

Market cap

2.90%

Dividend yield

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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). 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 B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

13.4%

FY2026

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 13.4% in the latest fiscal year and steady — a modest positive spread over its ~9% cost of capital — growth adds value, though not dramatically.

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%.

$169M

FY2020–FY2020

Goodwill impairments. Took $169M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2020 ($169M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$13.21B

Revenue Growth YoY+9.4%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+8.0%

Net Margin9.1%

Free Cash Flow$1.12B

Return on Equity54.7%

Debt / Equity1.06x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 10, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.