Shares of Darden Restaurants Inc., pummeled by an earnings warning last week, regained some lost ground Thursday after an analyst upgraded the stock, saying the company’s full-service Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains were faring better than fast-food outlets. Darden shares jumped 6.25 percent after J.P. Morgan analyst John Ivankoe raised his rating on Darden to “overweight” from “neutral.” Shares closed Thursday at $17.85, up $1.05 on the New York Stock Exchange. Darden shares fell almost 17 percent last Tuesday after the company lowered its quarterly earnings forecast. Orlando-based Darden’s other restaurants include the Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones BBQ chains.
STATE
PORT ORANGE MAN PLEADS GUILTY
A 62-year-old Port Orange man pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud and selling forged securities Thursday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, authorities said. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, William Brad Kane was president of SOS Industries, a New Smyrna Beach company that leased medical-alarm equipment, from 1989 to 2000. Authorities said Kane attracted hundreds of investors in SOS with false advertisements and false accounting statements on the number of alarms that had been leased. According to court documents, more than 400 victims invested between $25,000 and $3 million from 1994 to 2000.
NATION
MORTGAGE RATES CONTINUE TO FALL
For the third time this year, weekly rates on 30-year mortgages have reached a new low. The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 5.79 percent, Freddie Mac reported Thursday in its latest nationwide survey. Rates for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages edged down to 5.14 percent, compared with 5.21 percent last week. Rates for one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, however, rose to 3.83 percent, up slightly from last week’s 3.81 percent.
FCC DISCUSSES MEDIA RULES
The Federal Communications Commission got an earful of public support for media ownership limits Thursday as the five commissioners took their effort to develop new rules outside Washington, holding a hearing in Richmond, Va. Big television broadcasters such as NBC and Fox countered with pleas for the FCC to eliminate rules that bar them from reaching more than 35 percent of the national television audience or owning a newspaper and television or radio station in a single market. The commission led by Chairman Michael Powell is scheduled to vote on the rules in May.
LUCENT, SEC REACH AGREEMENT
Lucent Technologies, the nation’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment, said Thursday that it had reached a preliminary agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to end an investigation of its accounting practices. Lucent said the agreement, which is subject to the approval of SEC commissioners, would not require the company to pay a fine or restate any financial results. The SEC had been investigating Lucent for the past two years after the company alerted the commission that $679 million in revenue may have been improperly recorded. The SEC is expected to release its findings after commissioners vote on the agreement.
