Darden Restaurants Inc vs McDonald's Corp

Darden Restaurants Inc (DRI) is fairly valued and McDonald's Corp (MCD) is overvalued.

Against our estimates of intrinsic value, DRI trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +3%, against -21% for MCD.

Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.

Darden Restaurants Inc (DRI)

Discounting its cash flows at 8.5% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $219.43; the price of $213.54 is 3% below that value, and 78% of that value comes from beyond year five.

Leak Score 59/100 on 9 of 12 signals

McDonald's Corp (MCD)

Discounting its cash flows at 7.5% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $206.94; the price of $250.35 is 21% above that value, and 81% of that value comes from beyond year five.

Leak Score 60/100 on 8 of 12 signals

MetricDRIMCD
VerdictFairly valuedOvervalued
Price$213.54$250.35
Intrinsic value$219.43$206.94
Margin of safety+3%-21%
Leak Score59/100 (9/12)60/100 (8/12)
Market cap$24.2B$177.2B
Revenue growth, 5 years12.9%7.0%
Operating margin12.2%45.7%
Net margin9.1%31.7%
Return on equity53.7%
Debt to equity3.63
P/E20.6x20.3x
Forward P/E17.2x18.0x
P/B11.0x
Dividend yield3.1%3.0%

All stocks in Restaurants