Darden Restaurants Inc (DRI): Today's Featured Leisure Winner

Darden Restaurants (DRI) pushed the Leisure industry higher today making it today's featured leisure winner. The industry as a whole closed the day down 1.2%. By the end of trading, Darden Restaurants rose 54 cents (1.3%) to $43.75 on average volume. Throughout the day, 2.5 million shares of Darden Restaurants exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 2.5 million shares. The stock ranged in a price between $42.82-$43.78 after having opened the day at $43.04 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $43.21. Other companies within the Leisure industry that increased today were: Canterbury Park Holding Corporation (CPHC), up 4.3%, Morton's Restaurant Group (MRT), up 3.2%, Empire Resorts (NYNY), up 2.4%, and Rick's Cabaret International (RICK), up 2.1%.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. operates full service restaurants in the United States and Canada. It operates restaurants under the Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, and Seasons 52 brand names. Darden Restaurants has a market cap of $5.68 billion and is part of the services sector. The company has a P/E ratio of 12.7, equal to the average leisure industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are down 7% year to date as of the close of trading on Friday. Currently there are 18 analysts that rate Darden Restaurants a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and nine rate it a hold.

TheStreet Ratings rates Darden Restaurants as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, reasonable valuation levels and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

• You can view the full Darden Ratings Report.

On the negative front, PokerTek (PTEK), down 16.4%, Pizza Inn Holdings (PZZI), down 8.9%, Century Casinos (CNTY), down 6.8%, and Boyd Gaming Corporation (BYD), down 4.9%, were all losers within the leisure industry with Priceline.com (PCLN) being today's leisure industry loser.

• Use our leisure section to find industry-relevant news.
• Or find some new ideas from our top rated stocks lists.

For investors not wanting singular stock exposure, ETFs may be of interest. Investors who are bullish on the leisure industry could consider PowerShares Dynamic Leisure&Entert (PEJ) while those bearish on the leisure industry could consider ProShares Ultra Sht Consumer Services (SCC).

• Find other investment ideas from our top rated ETFs lists.

For more information on Darden Restaurants Inc click any of the following:

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