Darden Restaurants on Thursday reported mixed quarterly results as Olive Garden\u2019s same-store sales fell for the second consecutive quarter.<\/p>\n
For fiscal 2025, Darden is forecasting that its same-store sales will grow just 1% to 2%.<\/p>\n
Shares of the company rose more than 2% in premarket trading.<\/p>\n
Darden reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $308.1 million, or $2.57 per share, down from $315.1 million, or $2.58 per share, a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Excluding costs related to the Ruth\u2019s Chris acquisition and other items, the company earned $2.65 per share.<\/p>\n
Net sales rose 6.8% to $2.96 billion, fueled by its acquisition of Ruth\u2019s Chris Steak House and 37 other net new locations.<\/p>\n
Darden\u2019s overall same-store sales were flat for the quarter, dragged down by weaker-than-expected sales at Olive Garden and its fine-dining restaurants.<\/p>\n
Olive Garden\u2019s same-store sales fell 1.5%. Analysts were expecting the Italian-inspired chain to report flat same-store sales growth, according to StreetAccount estimates. <\/strong>Last quarter, Olive Garden\u2019s same-store sales fell 1.8%, driven by a pullback from low-income consumers.<\/p>\n Darden\u2019s fine-dining restaurants, which include The Capital Grille and Eddie V\u2019s, saw their same-store sales shrink 2.6% in the quarter. That division now includes Ruth\u2019s Chris, but those same-store results won\u2019t be included in the category total for several more quarters.<\/p>\n LongHorn Steakhouse, which is overtaking Olive Garden as the gem of Darden\u2019s portfolio, was the only segment to report same-store sales growth. The chain\u2019s same-store sales rose 4% in the quarter.<\/p>\n Looking to fiscal 2025, Darden is forecasting earnings per share from continuing operations of $9.40 to $9.60, in line with Wall Street\u2019s expectations of $9.55 per share. The company is also anticipating net sales of $11.8 billion to $11.9 billion, on the low end of analysts\u2019 expectations of $11.94 billion.<\/p>\n Darden is projecting total inflation of 3% and same-store sales growth of 1% to 2% in fiscal 2025. Ruth\u2019s Chris won\u2019t be included in Darden\u2019s same-store sales until the second quarter of fiscal 2025. The company plans to spend $550 million to $600 million on capital expenditures.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Darden Restaurants on Thursday reported mixed quarterly results as Olive Garden\u2019s same-store sales fell for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}