Darden Restaurants, Inc.(NYSE: DRI) stock got upgraded Canaccord Genuity and RBC Capital Markets to “Buy” and “Sector Perform” ratings. But the stock opened subdued this morning and fell over 0.4% (as of 1:02PM EDT on March 29th, 2017; Source: Google finance). However, the stock surged over 6.9% in the last five days driven by their positive results and acquisition of Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen for $780 million.

In the third quarter of FY 17, Darden Restaurants has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.32, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.27. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 1.7 percent to $1.88 billion in the third quarter of FY 17, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.86 billion. Darden Restaurants same-restaurant sales grew 0.9% for the third quarter and the company has continued to gain market share as the company has outperformed the industry same-restaurant sales by a considerable margin again this quarter.

Darden Restaurants has increased its outlook and expects the full-year earnings per share to be in the range of $3.95 to $4. This is due to an updated outlook for same-restaurant sales of approximately 1.5%. Darden Restaurants has witnessed an increase in sales across majority of its brands in the fiscal third quarter.

Moreover, the sales at Olive Garden grew 1.5% year over year to $1.04 billion. A 1.4% increase in comps at Olive Garden was lower than the prior-quarter comps growth of 2.6%. The Traffic declined 0.2%, however, there was a 1.3% improvement in pricing and 0.3% growth in menu mix. The sales at Fine Dining grew 5.3% to $153.7 million. Comps at The Capital Grille grew 0.9%, lower than the prior-quarter comps growth of 1.2%. Meanwhile, Eddie V’s has posted comps growth of 4.7% higher than the 2.7% improvement recorded in the preceding quarter. At LongHorn Steakhouse, the sales grew 2.1% to $434.3 million and Comps at LongHorn Steakhouse has increased 0.2%, higher than the prior-quarter comps growth of 0.1%. In addition, the revenues from Other Business fell 0.2% year over year to $255.6 million and Comps at Seasons 52 inched up 0.8% for the quarter, as against the prior-quarter comps’ decline of 0.3%.

Darden Restaurants stock surged over 35.7% in the last six months (as of 12:54PM EDT on March 29th, 2017; Source: Company Reports). On the other hand, Darden Restaurants stock has an average target price of $82.67 which is a limited upside of 0.32%.