Darden Restaurants Inc. , the company that owns Olive Garden, The Capital Grille, Longhorn Steakhouse, and other chains, was downgraded to underperform from market perform at Raymond James. Analysts have grown more cautious about the restaurant stocks they follow on concerns that sales could turn negative in the coming weeks on tough same-store sales comparisons, they wrote in a note published Friday. Raymond James also sees risk in the stock market volatility, a slowing in retail sales (excluding autos, gas, foodservice and building materials) and the possibility of a recession following weakness in the U.S. industrial sector. The bank also downgraded Mexican restaurant chain Chuy Holdings Inc. to market perform from outperform. It maintains its strong buy rating on Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc. , Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. and Carrols Restaurant Group Inc. , which operates more than 700 Burger King restaurants. Darden shares are inactive in premarket trading, but are up 13.6% for the past 12 months. The S&P is down 6.3% for the same period.
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