Darden Restaurants Earnings Surge
Darden Restaurants
(DRI) - Get Report
reported a better-than-expected 20% jump in third quarter earnings and guided expectations for its current fiscal year higher.
Darden earned $92.6 million, or 56 cents a share, in the just-completed quarter, compared with earnings of $77.1 million, or 45 cents a share, last year. Revenue rose 10.8% from a year ago to $1.38 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 51 cents a share on sales of $1.33 billion in the latest quarter.
For the fiscal year ending in May, Darden expects per-share earnings growth of 19% to 21% over 2004's earnings, which were $1.50 a share excluding an asset impairment charge. That implies earnings of $1.79 to $1.82 a share. Analysts were forecasting earnings of $1.69 a share for the year.
In the third quarter, sales rose 13.9% from a year ago at Olive Garden to $627.8 million, with same-store sales rising 10.5%. At Red Lobster, sales rose 5.4% to $636.1 million, while same-store sales jumped 5.1%.
The stock closed Wednesday at $27.37, down 18 cents.