DRI

Darden Restaurants, Inc owns restaurant chains (Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V's and Yard House). Other than Buffalo Wild Wings (an awesome, woman run business), The Humungus avoids retail anything like Dash avoids work. Moreover, DRI is plagued by Shareholder.....Activists.

However, in this case we make an exception, because if there's one thing The Humungus truly loves, it's a turnaround play (embrace your inner bottom feeder).

DRI has been beaten down and rightly so; they've lost focus on what's important. Customer service you say? H311 no: shareholder value. The pressure being applied by the {activist}, in this case Starboard Value, is good. Pressing DRI to replace the board (over time), concentrate on accretive solutions (e.g. don't repeat the Red Lobster play) and adapt to dynamics in the casual dining environment and IMPROVE PROFITABILITY is a push in the right direction. DRI announced earnings today and they looked good.

They've got cash on hand and are committed to a fat (4.5%) dividend and shareholder buyback. So, cash+commitment+pressure+dividend+buyback=upside potential.

This is a risky play, but The Humungus likes the adrenaline as much as the next guy (or GAL), so we're buying DRI.

For the record, I've strategically placed 2 strong hints about the ending of "Pines". See if you can spot them.