Darden Stock Dips After Disappointing Q1 Results

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:DRI) shares are slipping Thursday after the company reported first-quarter results that narrowly missed Wall Street’s expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Here’s what you should know.

• Darden Restaurants stock is facing resistance. Why is DRI stock trading lower?

Darden Narrowly Misses On Both Earnings and Revenue

Per-share profit landed at $2.05 for the quarter, coming in just a hair below the $2.06 Wall Street had penciled in, even though that figure still represented roughly 4% growth from the $1.97 posted a year earlier. Revenue told a similar story, with the company bringing in $3.2 billion against expectations closer to roughly $3.21 billion, a gap of less than a quarter percentage point. Revenue still climbed about 6.5% from the approximate $3 billion recorded during the same stretch last year.

Every single brand under Darden’s umbrella posted growth in same-restaurant sales during the period. LongHorn Steakhouse paced the pack, climbing 6.2% on the fiscal calendar and 6.8% on the comparable basis, while Olive Garden added 1.1% and 1.0%, Fine Dining rose 1.6% and 1.0% and the company’s other restaurant holdings gained 3.8% and 4.5%, respectively.

President and CEO Rick Cardenas pointed to “each of our segments delivering positive same-restaurant sales” as evidence the quarter got the fiscal year off to a strong start. He tied that performance to the strength of running a portfolio of distinct restaurant brands, each with its own strategy, while benefiting from Darden’s overall scale.

Cardenas said the company plans to keep executing well at the restaurant level, deepen guest loyalty, invest in employees and brands and deploy capital in ways designed to build long-term value for shareholders.

Darden Reaffirms Full-Year Guidance and Continues Buybacks

Darden’s board approved a quarterly dividend of $1.62 a share, set to go out November 2 to shareholders on record as of October 9. On the buyback front, the company bought back about 1.1 million shares for roughly $222.3 million during the quarter, leaving $1.3 billion still available under its broader $1.5 billion repurchase authorization.

Looking ahead, Darden left its fiscal 2027 guidance untouched, still projecting diluted earnings per share between $11.10 and $11.35 from continuing operations, a range that brackets the $11.27 figure analysts are currently modeling.

DRI Shares Are Dipping

DRI Price Action: Darden shares were down 1.53% at $210.43 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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