Darden Restaurants slightly beats Q2 sales estimates

Darden Restaurants

18/12/2025 12:10

Overview

Restaurant company's fiscal Q2 sales slightly beat analyst expectations

Adjusted EPS for fiscal Q2 missed analyst expectations

Company repurchased $222 mln of its common stock

Outlook

Darden expects fiscal 2026 total sales growth of 8.5% to 9.3%

Company anticipates same-restaurant sales growth of 3.5% to 4.3%

Darden projects adjusted EPS  from continuing operations of $10.50 to $10.70 for fiscal 2026

Result Drivers

SAME-RESTAURANT SALES - Darden reported a 4.3% increase in same-restaurant sales, contributing to overall sales growth

NEW RESTAURANTS - Sales were boosted by the addition of 30 net new restaurants

GUEST SATISFACTION - CEO Rick Cardenas noted record or near-record guest satisfaction scores across all brands

Key Details

Metric
Beat/Miss
Actual
Consensus Estimate
Q2 Sales
Slight Beat*
$3.10 bln
$3.07 bln (25 Analysts)
Q2 Net Income
$237.20 mln
Q2 Adjusted EPS continuing operations
Miss
$2.08
$2.10 (29 Analysts)
Q2 EPS continuing operations
$2.03
Q2 Same-restaurant sales growth
4.30%


*Applies to a deviation of less than 1%; not applicable for per-share numbers.

Analyst Coverage

The current average analyst rating on the shares is "buy" and the breakdown of recommendations is 20 "strong buy" or "buy", 12 "hold" and 1 "sell" or "strong sell"

The average consensus recommendation for the restaurants & bars peer group is "buy"

Wall Street's median 12-month price target for Darden Restaurants Inc is $225.00, about 18.7% above its December 17 closing price of $189.53

The stock recently traded at 17 times the next 12-month earnings vs. a P/E of 19 three months ago

Press Release: ID:nPn9thVZ4a

For questions concerning the data in this report, contact Estimates.Support@lseg.com. For any other questions or feedback, contact RefinitivNewsSupport@thomsonreuters.com.

(This story was created using Reuters automation and AI based on LSEG and company data. It was checked and edited by a Reuters journalist prior to publication.)