Moody's upgrades Darden notes

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded Darden Restaurants, Inc.'s senior unsecured ratings to Baa2 from Baa3.

"The upgrade reflects Darden's material improvement in operating performance and cost savings initiatives that is expected to sustain a strengthening of credit metrics and liquidity," stated Bill Fahy, a Moody's senior credit officer, in a press release.

"Overall, we expect Darden's credit metrics will continue to improve as it migrates towards its publicly stated lease adjusted debt to EBITDAR target in the range of 2 to 2.5 times, which would equate to a range of approximately 3.3 to 4.2 times as calculated by Moody's," said Fahy.

The outlook is stable.

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