Darden downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies

Jefferies analyst Andy Barish downgraded Darden Restaurants to Underperform from Hold with a price target of $124, down from $154. The analyst sees risk to the company’s near-term fundamentals, driven by share loss in a more promotional environment, low-end weakness persisting, and lesser tailwinds from pandemic capacity destruction. The firm suspects further narrowing of Darden’s traffic versus peers, and subsequent contraction in the stock’s “premium” multiple.