Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants beats Q4 profit estimates

Darden Restaurants

25/06/2026 12:10

Overview
US casual dining operator's fiscal Q4 sales rose 13.7% yr/yr, slightly missing analyst expectations
Adjusted EPS beat analyst expectations, helped by additional operational week
Company authorized new $1.5 bln share buyback and raised quarterly dividend

Outlook
Darden sees fiscal 2027 sales of $13.60 bln to $13.75 bln
Company expects same-restaurant sales growth of 2.5% to 3.5% in fiscal 2027
Darden forecasts fiscal 2027 diluted net EPS from continuing operations of $11.10 to $11.35

Result Drivers
EXTRA WEEK OF OPERATIONS - Additional week contributed 7.6% to Q4 sales and $0.25 to reported and adjusted EPS
SAME-RESTAURANT SALES GROWTH - Blended same-restaurant sales rose 4.6% in Q4, with LongHorn Steakhouse up 9.5%
NEW RESTAURANT OPENINGS - Sales from 43 net new restaurants contributed to Q4 growth

Company press release: ID:nPn4rZZDta

Key Details
Metric
Beat/Miss
Actual
Consensus Estimate
Q4 Sales
Slight Miss*
$3.72 bln
$3.73 bln (20 Analysts)
Q4 Adjusted EPS continuing operations
Beat
$3.66
$3.63 (25 Analysts)
Q4 EPS continuing operations
 
$3.54
 
Q4 Same-restaurant sales growth
 
4.60%
 
*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 18 "strong buy" or "buy", 11 "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 $229.00, about 7.3% above its June 24 closing price of $213.45
The stock recently traded at 19 times the next 12-month earnings vs. a P/E of 19 three months ago

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