Darden Restaurants vs Yum! Brands
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The short version
- Darden Restaurants is the larger business, with $13.2B of revenue in fiscal 2026 against $8.2B for Yum! Brands, about 1.6 times as much.
- Darden Restaurants grew revenue faster (9.4%, against 8.8%).
- Yum! Brands kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (31.3% operating margin, against 12.0%).
- Yum! Brands turned more of its sales into free cash flow (20.0% FCF margin, against 8.5%).
- Yum! Brands earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (54.8%, against 24.8%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Darden Restaurants’s earnings: a P/E of 20.8x against 18.8x for Yum! Brands.
| Latest fiscal year | DRI · FY26 | YUM · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $24.3B | $41.5B |
| Revenue | $13.2B | $8.2B |
| Free cash flow | $1.1B | $1.6B |
| Net income | $1.2B | $1.6B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 9.4% | 8.8% |
| 5-year growth | 12.9% | 7.8% |
| Share count change | −1.8% | −1.4% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 20.3% | 69.8% |
| Operating margin | 12.0% | 31.3% |
| Net margin | 9.1% | 19.0% |
| FCF margin | 8.5% | 20.0% |
| Return on capital | 24.8% | 54.8% |
| Return on equity | 53.4% | — |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $3.2B | $11.3B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.5x | 4.1x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $1.4B | $1.3B |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 20.8x | 18.8x |
| Piotroski F-score | 6 | 6 |
Revenue
FY17
DRI $7.2B
YUM $5.9B
FY18
DRI $8.1B
YUM $5.7B
FY19
DRI $8.5B
YUM $5.6B
FY20
DRI $7.8B
YUM $5.7B
FY21
DRI $7.2B
YUM $6.6B
FY22
DRI $9.6B
YUM $6.8B
FY23
DRI $10.5B
YUM $7.1B
FY24
DRI $11.4B
YUM $7.5B
FY25
DRI $12.1B
YUM $8.2B
FY26
DRI $13.2B
YUM —
DRI
YUM
Operating margin
FY17
DRI 9.5%
YUM 47.0%
FY18
DRI 9.5%
YUM 40.4%
FY19
DRI 9.8%
YUM 34.5%
FY20
DRI 0.6%
YUM 26.6%
FY21
DRI 9.0%
YUM 32.5%
FY22
DRI 12.1%
YUM 32.0%
FY23
DRI 11.5%
YUM 32.8%
FY24
DRI 11.5%
YUM 31.8%
FY25
DRI 11.3%
YUM 31.3%
FY26
DRI 12.0%
YUM —
DRI
YUM
Free cash flow
FY17
DRI $623M
YUM $712M
FY18
DRI $624M
YUM $942M
FY19
DRI $816M
YUM $1.1B
FY20
DRI $258M
YUM $1.1B
FY21
DRI $939M
YUM $1.5B
FY22
DRI $888M
YUM $1.1B
FY23
DRI $988M
YUM $1.3B
FY24
DRI $1.0B
YUM $1.4B
FY25
DRI $1.1B
YUM $1.6B
FY26
DRI $1.1B
YUM —
DRI
YUM
Return on capital
FY17
DRI 20.8%
YUM 64.1%
FY18
DRI 26.5%
YUM 85.2%
FY19
DRI 26.2%
YUM 79.7%
FY20
DRI 1.3%
YUM 53.8%
FY21
DRI 20.8%
YUM 80.0%
FY22
DRI 29.8%
YUM 62.7%
FY23
DRI 27.7%
YUM 67.3%
FY24
DRI 26.2%
YUM 62.4%
FY25
DRI 22.6%
YUM 54.8%
FY26
DRI 24.8%
YUM —
DRI
YUM
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.