Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants Inc on Friday reported a quarterly loss, but its results were overshadowed by activist investor Starboard Value LP's release of its revised plan to boost Darden's profit and stock price.Starboard, one of Darden's largest investors with an 8.8 percent stake, late on Thursday unveiled a 294-slide proposal that included plans to sell Darden's real estate, franchise its restaurants, spin off The Capital Grille, Yard House and other chains and fix the flagship Olive Garden chain.Starboard, which also is seeking to replace Darden's entire 12-member board, said it has identified up to $326 million in cost savings. It believes its strategy could make Darden's stock worth as much as $86 per share, even before it got to work on fixing Olive Garden or selling restaurants to franchisees.Darden shares fell about 1.9 percent to $47.36 in midday trading. The stock has lost more than 12 percent of its value this year.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. is full service restaurant company. Shares of DRI fell by 1.62% or $-0.78/share to $47.51. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $43.56 and as high as $54.89. On average, 1687480 shares of DRI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1782100.
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