DRI posts
FeedPosted Mar 25th 2011 8:30AM by Paul Foster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Darden Restaurants (DRI), Options, Currency
Darden (DRI) April and October put option implied volatility of 34 is above its 26-week average of 28, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement into Q3 results that were reported Thursday after the market close.
Euro Currency Trust (FXE) closed up 70 cents to 141.15. Overall option implied volatility of 11 is near its 26-week month average, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.
Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.
Posted Mar 20th 2011 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Tiffany and Co (TIF), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Economic Data, Housing
Quarterly reports from Oracle (ORCL), Discover (DFS) and Tiffany (TIF) will highlight news on the earnings front this week.
Elsewhere on the economic calendar, the focus will be on housing, with existing home sales data due from the National Association of Realtors on Monday, new home sales numbers from the Census Bureau on Wednesday and data on housing starts released on Thursday.
Also watch for durable goods orders in February and the final GDP for the fourth quarter.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Housing Data and Late Season Earnings (ORCL, DFS, TIF)
Posted Mar 20th 2011 10:10AM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Darden Restaurants (DRI), Stocks to Buy
Restaurant chain Darden Restaurants (DRI), first discussed here on June 25, 2009, at a price of $32.78, has formed a double-top near $51. So now would be a good time to consider taking some profits off the table, if you're in near $33.
However, those investors who can tolerate the risk can maintain their full position and go for an bigger gain, but investors should keep in mind that Darden probably won't clear $60 in 2011. The potential upside is still adequate, but not fantastic.
Continue reading Darden Restaurants: Time to Take Some Profits?
Posted Dec 19th 2010 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Darden Restaurants (DRI), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Economic Data
Companies continue to file quarterly reports late in the season, and a few are poised to spread some early holiday cheer for investors this week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect strong earnings results from Nike (NKE), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) and Darden Restaurants (DRI), among others. Here's a quick look (for more details, see the DailyFinance Week in Preview).
Analysts forecast Nike's fiscal-second quarter earnings to come in at 88 cents per share, a 13.6% increase from the same period of last year. The world's leading athletic footwear maker also is expected to post revenue of $4.8 billion for the three months that ended in November. That's 9.3% more than the same period a year earlier. Note that Nike's earnings have not fallen short of consensus estimates in the past five quarters.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Late Season Earnings from Nike, Bed Bath & Beyond, Darden
Posted Sep 17th 2010 11:30AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, McDonald's (MCD), Chipotle Mexican Grill'A' (CMG), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Yum Brands (YUM), Analyst Initiations, Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG)
Analyst Upgrades
- Baird upgraded Oshkosh (OSK) to outperform from neutral, citing valuation as it believes post-Iraq U.S. military spending concerns are overdone. The firm keeps a $42 price target for shares.
- Goldman transferred coverage on CenturyTel (CTL) with a buy from a neutral and has a $42 price target on the stock. The firm believes CenturyTel could increase buybacks and or increase its dividend given free cash generation and low payout ratio.
- Lazard Capital upgraded Hatteras Financial (HTS) to buy from hold to reflect increased dividend projections. The firm has a $30 price target for shares.
- EOG Resources (EOG) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Credit Suisse.
- Donaldson (DCI) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at BofA/Merrill.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: CTL, HTS, ISRG, MCD, MLM, OSK, RUTH, WMS, YUM ...
Posted Jun 24th 2010 4:40PM by Jeff Reeves (RSS feed)
Filed under: Best Buy (BBY), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Duke Energy (DUK), Stocks to Buy

After a volatile May, many folks are looking to companies that pay a regular dividend as a way to limit their risk and provide a bit of steady income. While it's important that the payout is substantial in these type of income investments, it's also important for investors to focus on
stocks raising dividends because this helps guarantee that a company won't leave shareholders in the lurch and slash payouts when times get a little tough. After all, if you buy in for the quarterly payday, the last thing you want is for your holdings to slash their dividend payouts or let them languish without any increases.
For all you income investors out there, here are three stocks from the last week that just raised dividends and could be good additions to your holdings:
Continue reading Income Investments: 3 Stocks That Are Boosting Their Dividends
Posted May 21st 2010 9:00AM by Laurie Pasternack (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Citigroup Inc. (C), Carnival Corp (CCL), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Procter and Gamble (PG), Analyst Initiations, DreamWorks Animation (DWA), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A)
Analyst Upgrades
- Janney Montgomery upgraded MasterCard (MA) to buy from neutral. The firm has a $250 price target on the stock.
- Lazard upgraded Frontline (FRO) to hold from sell following the better than expected Q1 report.
- Knight Capital (NITE) was upgraded at BMO Capital to outperform from market perform. The firm cites valuation and improved fundamentals for the downgrade. The firm has an $18 price target on the stock.
- Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
- Carnival (CCL) was upgraded to neutral from sell at Goldman.
- Computer Sciences (CSC) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: MA, FRO, NITE, RDS.A, CCL, DWA, VLCM, WEN, C, PG, ENOC ...
Posted Apr 7th 2010 11:00AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Nokia Corp. (NOK), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Analyst Initiations
Analyst Upgrades
- Piper Jaffray upgraded MWI Veterinary Supply (MWIV) to overweight from neutral and raised its target for shares to $50.
- UBS believes Nokia (NOK) is well positioned for smartphone growth. The firm upgraded shares to buy from neutral and has a $19.55 price target.
- Wells Fargo upgraded Cedar Fair (FUN) to outperform from market perform. After the company's merger agreement with Apollo was terminated, the firm thinks the company will be able to refinance its debt, removing an uncertainty.
- Darden (DRI) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
- KeyCorp (KEY) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman.
- Bank of Ireland (IRE) was upgraded to hold from sell at RBS.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: BDX, DRI, FUN, LVS, MWIV, NOK, PRXL, SLGN, SNE, UBS ...
Posted Mar 21st 2010 12:00PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Tiffany and Co (TIF), General Mills (GIS)
The coming week will bring late-season earnings reports from Best Buy Inc. (BBY), ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Walgreen Co. (WAG), all of which are expected to post earnings and revenue growth, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Below is a closer look at a few other companies reporting this week for which expectations are high.
In the three months that ended in January, Williams-Sonoma (WSM) saw strong holiday sales, declared a quarterly dividend, and announced the retirement of its CEO. Analysts expect the San Francisco-based home products retailer to report that fiscal fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled from the same period of last year to $0.74 per share. Revenue for the period is expected to be 6.2% higher to $1.1 billion. For the full year, the forecast calls for earnings of $0.81 per share (+56.8%) on $3.1 billion in revenue (-8.3%). Williams-Sonoma earnings results have been better than expected in recent quarters -- beating consensus estimates by more than 200% in the third quarter.
Continue reading The Week in Preview: Eye on General Mills, Tiffany, Williams-Sonoma and more
Posted Feb 9th 2010 2:30PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Management, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Wal-Mart (WMT), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), AFLAC Inc (AFL), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Campbell Soup (CPB), Chevron Corp (CVX), Chubb Corp (CB), ConocoPhillips (COP), CVS Corp (CVS), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Verizon Communications (VZ), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Hasbro Inc (HAS), Entrepreneurs, Serious Money, Stock Screen, Raytheon Company (RTN), Xcel Energy (XEL), EZCORP (EZPW), Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV)

While most investors are fretting the markets recent contraction, you can be quite confident that "my pal Warren" has a smile on his face, as does Peter Lynch, Ken Heebner, Bill Miller, Bruce Berkowitz, and any number of fellow value investors that know now may be a time of opportunity. That is because they have the experience and understanding to pounce when they have a chance to buy things cheap.
This is the fourth installment of my series to discover just that: cheap stocks. If you would like to get on board from the beginning then review the initial post which screened for stocks with lower than market average P/E ratios, see
Serious Money: Market Looks Cheap to Me -- 35 Stocks. In the second installment, I looked at yield and PEG ratios:
Serious Money: Still Cheap Market -- 35 Stocks + Yields & Growth. Then I moved on to the the P/S and P/CF metrics in
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks Yet -- From 35 to 26, cutting nine stocks.
Continue reading Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 10:40AM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: eBay (EBAY), Pfizer (PFE), Wal-Mart (WMT), International Business Machines (IBM), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), AFLAC Inc (AFL), Altria Group (MO), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Campbell Soup (CPB), Chevron Corp (CVX), Chubb Corp (CB), ConocoPhillips (COP), CVS Corp (CVS), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), General Mills (GIS), Verizon Communications (VZ), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), Merck and Co (MRK), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Hasbro Inc (HAS), Serious Money, Stock Screen, Raytheon Company (RTN), Xcel Energy (XEL), EZCORP (EZPW), Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV)

Is the market overpriced? Maybe it is cheap, or perhaps it is fairly valued. This is the third in a series examining the issue. Still, it has been my contention that it does not make any difference because no matter how the market is valued as a whole, there are plenty of cheap stocks out there to accommodate a large amount of capital allocation even this deep into a bull run.
If you would like to follow along from the beginning, the initial post screened stocks for lower than market average P/E ratios:
Serious Money: Market Looks Cheap to Me -- 35 Stocks. In the second installment, I looked at yield and PEG ratios:
Serious Money: Still Cheap Market -- 35 Stocks + Yields & Growth.
Continue reading Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks Yet -- From 35 to 26
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