Darden Restaurants Inc has canceled its analyst and investor meeting slated for later this month as two activist shareholders lobby for bolder steps to improve performance at its restaurant chains, ranging from Olive Garden to Capital Grille. Rather than holding the meeting, which was scheduled for March 28, Darden, the biggest operator of full-service restaurant chains in terms of outlets, will meet individually with analysts and investors, a spokesman said on Wednesday."We're taking it on the road," the spokesman, Rich Jeffers, said. "We're reaching out to everyone who was planning to attend."Barington Capital Group LP has been pushing Darden to put its more-mature Olive Garden and Red Lobster brands into one company, and its higher-growth chains, including LongHorn Steakhouse and Capital Grille, into another.It also wants the company to create a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) to unlock the value of its property holdings.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. is a full service restaurant company. Shares of DRI fell by 1.06% or $-0.515/share to $48.10. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $44.78 and as high as $55.25. On average, 1742510 shares of DRI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1122938.
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