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More Reading from MarketBeat Media Darden Restaurants, Inc.: This is What a Strong Signal Looks LikeBy Thomas Hughes. First Published: 12/23/2025. 
Summary - Darden Restaurants is testing long-term trend support after a steep pullback, creating a potential trend-following entry setup.
- Recent quarterly results showed solid sales and same-restaurant sales growth, alongside continued dividends and buybacks.
- Heavy institutional ownership and net inflows suggest support if the stock confirms a breakout back above key moving averages.
Darden Restaurants, Inc.'s (NYSE: DRI) stock is flashing a potential trend-following entry in late December after a sharp 2025 pullback. The core thesis is straightforward: the long-term uptrend looks intact, momentum indicators are turning, and fundamentals—paired with institutional positioning—create a credible path to market-beating total returns in 2026 if the stock clears nearby resistance. Darden Restaurants Pulls Back to Trend-Following Entry Point in Q4 You're almost out of time to place this "Debasement Trade"
Wall Street has been making headlines for piling into a strange new money move they're calling the "Debasement Trade"... And it could affect you and your money in a MAJOR way. According to Dr. David Eifrig, a former Goldman Sachs executive who has traded profitably through just about every stock market situation you can imagine, including Black Monday… the clock is ticking for you to get your money in the right place. He's just released a free, brand-new briefing that explains exactly what's happening and the No. 1 financial step to take immediately. Click here to watch it now before it's too late. Weekly price action for DRI stock has been in an uptrend since 2014, interrupted only by COVID-19 volatility. More recently, a robust 2024 advance broke price action out of an Ascending Triangle Pattern (a consolidation with flat, equal highs and progressively higher lows) and set a new all-time high. That move was supported by growth, margin strength, and capital returns. Price action in 2025 has been less obviously bullish: the stock fell about 25% from its peak to the November 2025 low. Despite the drawdown, the long-term uptrend remains intact. That decline, while unpleasant, did two useful things for trend followers: it pulled price back toward long-term support and allowed momentum gauges to unwind from extended conditions. Indicators such as the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and stochastic have reset, and a key exponential moving average (EMA) has caught up with the price action. Specifically, the 150-week EMA—an indicator of long-term buy-and-hold support that has aligned with DRI's uptrend line for years—is advancing and setting the stage for a rebound that now appears underway. 
The MACD and stochastic, which measure momentum and trend, point to a technical trend-following entry. The recent price rebound, together with bullish crossovers in stochastic and MACD, constitutes an entry signal and suggests the market can retest its highs and potentially move higher in 2026. Investors should note, however, that late‑December price action ran into nearby resistance that will need to be overcome. The Next Hurdle: Reclaiming the 150-Day EMA to Confirm Accumulation Even with improving momentum, the chart still has an obvious test ahead: reclaiming the 150-day EMA. Many traders treat that line as a proxy for intermediate-term accumulation—when price remains below it, rallies can stall; when price gets back above and holds, it often signals that dip buyers are back in control. To be clear, the 150-week EMA provides long-term structural support, while the 150-day EMA serves as the nearer-term confirmation line. Right now the market appears to be digesting the rebound that followed the most recent earnings catalyst. A clean push above the 150-day EMA—followed by a successful retest—would add conviction for traders who want more than an initial bounce. Earnings Catalyst: What Darden Just Reported and Why It Matters The earnings results for fiscal Q2 (FQ2) showed year-over-year growth accelerating to over 7%, outperformance versus expectations, and substantial margin improvement driven by core business trends and comp-store sales. Cash flow and capital returns were healthy as well, including the 3.1% yielding dividend and continued share buybacks. Buybacks have reduced the share count by 1.2% in the first fiscal half and are expected to remain robust in the second half. While restaurant results helped set the market tone, analysts and institutions largely drive the stock's movement. The FQ2 release prompted several price-target increases and upgrades, reinforcing the Moderate Buy rating and a roughly 20% upside forecast, and institutions are buying aggressively. Institutional investors now own more than 90% of the shares, and 2025 activity shows roughly $2 of purchases for every $1 of sales. That positioning constrains downside and leaves ample upside potential for DRI.
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