Darden price target raised to $188 from $175 at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley raised the firm’s price target on Darden (DRI) to $188 from $175 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The Darden story “hadn’t been resonating lately, at least from the investor perspective,” but “that has clearly shifted with some new drivers elaborated,” and the Uber (UBER) partnership “the real news” from the company’s Q1 report, the analyst tells investors. The firm would still expect some short term volatility, but it thinks Uber along with new product, LTOs, price-pointed marketing, and speed of service factors should drive sales, the analyst tells investors.