UPDATE: Oppenheimer Reiterates Outperform Rating, Raises PT on Darden Restaurants Awaiting Better Sales Trends

In a report published Monday, Oppenheimer analyst Brian Bittner reiterated an Outperform rating on Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI), and raised the price target from $51.00 to $54.00.In the report, Bittner noted, “DRI remains a ‘show me' story as investors await better sales trends, but downside to stock likely limited in meantime as market focuses on solid cash flow and robust dividend yield. The ‘expectation reset' at 2/25 analyst day makes another earnings cut unlikely, in our view, especially as sales trends have improved in March after Feb.'s trough. Feb. results were in line with pre-announcement and not much new from Feb.analyst day. Biggest near-term change is mgmt's attempt to ‘temper' average check growth as DRI tries to turn around string of share losses.”Darden Restaurants closed on Friday at $49.62.