Darden Restaurants surpassed Wall Street expectations on both earnings and revenue in its fiscal fourth-quarter report Friday, buoyed by strong same-store sales and expansion from recent acquisitions. The parent company of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse also issued an upbeat outlook for fiscal 2026, expecting revenue to grow 7% to 8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the quarter ended May 25, Darden posted adjusted earnings of $2.98 per share, slightly above the $2.97 expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG. Revenue came in at $3.27 billion, marginally ahead of the $3.26 billion forecast. Including acquisition costs, net income totaled $303.8 million, flat year-over-year at $2.58 per share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Same-store sales grew 4.6%, outperforming expectations of 3.5%. Olive Garden led the way with a 6.9% increase, well above the 4.6% estimate, while LongHorn Steakhouse followed closely with a 6.7% rise versus a 5.3% projection. These two brands contribute a significant portion of Darden\u2019s total revenue, with Olive Garden alone making up nearly 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CEO Rick Cardenas attributed the strong performance to consumer appetite for casual dining and the return of Olive Garden\u2019s \u201cBuy One Take One\u201d offer, revived after five years. He suggested Darden is gaining market share from fast food and fast casual segments as diners seek better value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company\u2019s recent acquisition of 103 Chuy\u2019s restaurants helped push net sales up 10.6% for the quarter. Darden expects its adjusted fiscal 2026 EPS to land between $10.50 and $10.70, including 20 cents attributed to an extra operating week next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, other brands like Cheddar\u2019s Scratch Kitchen saw modest same-store sales growth of 1.2%, aligned with forecasts. Cheddar\u2019s also expanded delivery capabilities through a partnership with Uber Direct, now available at nearly all locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not all segments delivered strong results. Darden\u2019s fine dining division, which includes Ruth\u2019s Chris Steak House and The Capital Grille, saw same-store sales decline by 3.3%, more than the expected 0.2% drop. CFO Raj Vennam acknowledged headwinds in the fine dining category but noted improving traffic from high-income households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darden also announced it will explore \u201cstrategic alternatives\u201d for Bahama Breeze after closing 15 locations. Options include a potential sale or converting the brand\u2019s units to other Darden concepts. Cardenas called Bahama Breeze \u201cnot a strategic priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a show of confidence, Darden\u2019s board authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program with no expiration date. Shares rose more than 1% Friday, bringing the year-to-date gain to roughly 19% as of Wednesday\u2019s close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Olive Garden and LongHorn outperform as Darden eyes 7\u20138% annual revenue growth Darden Restaurants surpassed Wall Street expectations on both earnings and revenue in its fiscal fourth-quarter report Friday, buoyed by strong same-store sales and expansion from recent acquisitions. The parent company of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse also issued an upbeat outlook for fiscal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4158,4155,4153,4147,4156,4152,4146,4151,4159,4154,4150,4148,4149,4157],"class_list":{"0":"post-6673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bahama-breeze-sale","9":"tag-casual-dining-trends","10":"tag-chuys-acquisition","11":"tag-darden-restaurants-earnings","12":"tag-fine-dining-slowdown","13":"tag-fiscal-2026-forecast","14":"tag-longhorn-steakhouse","15":"tag-olive-garden-sales","16":"tag-raj-vennam","17":"tag-restaurant-industry-outlook","18":"tag-rick-cardenas","19":"tag-same-store-sales-growth","20":"tag-share-repurchase-program","21":"tag-uber-direct-partnership"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6675,"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673\/revisions\/6675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianglobe.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}